Unspeakable Truths Volume 2: True Lies
by unspeakable writer
Summary: Second in the series. Now with some Unspeakable training Harry and Company return to Hogwarts for his sixth year. Not HBP compliant, but does include some of the plot points.
1. Chapter 1

Unspeakable Truths Volume Two: True Lies

Disclaimer: Characters, places and events of the Harry Potter Universe are Copyright J.K. Rowling and her publishers. Certain other characters and what-not are Copyright Rorschach's Blot.

Welcome back to the Unspeakable Universe. Just a quick note before I begin Volume 2 will be much longer than volume one, but I also don't have the same amount of time as I did when I wrote the first volume so it won't be updated as frequently. Special thanks to my betas CassieP and KdtheRavenclaw, you two rock! Also thanks to Rorsch for a) a bunch of crazy ideas to borrow from, and b) having a Yahoo group where he let's me post my stuff for pre-beta picking. One last thanks to everyone who reviewed Volume 1, I hope you enjoy volume two as much if not more.

One last item before we begin, Volume 1 should be considered required reading, I reference a lot of things that happened before, and I will throughout the series so if you're new to the series coming in from a C2 or a fav list, (I know that I'm on someone's C2 based on a review, but that's all I know for sure) I strongly suggest reading Volume 1 first.

Okay enough banter without further ado I preset:

True Lies

Chapter One: Life is Like a Boat

Harry and Ginny had finally returned to the Burrow as the night's chill was finally enough to overcome their very enjoyable quiet not-quite-solitude.

"Packed?"

"All set, normal supplies in trunk, everything else in the pendant." They had both turned their Unspeakable trunks into pendants, and referred to them as such, just in case someone overheard parts of the conversation. It would confuse them and definitely raise suspicion, but pendant sounded much better than secret unspeakable trunk.

"Does your pendant have a pass door?"

"Of course, yours?"

"Naturally. I think we should set up a way to meet using the pendants then, and we need to plan for tomorrow."

"After everyone goes to sleep?"

"Works for me, got some spare pepper-up?"

She gave him a look that said he ought to have his own, but nodded just the same. "Yes, but I'll get it after dinner, which judging by that wonderful smell will be ready shortly."

"I wonder where your father is, isn't he usually home by now?"

Ginny frowned a bit, "I know he's not working there at the moment, so I wonder if something happened at the office?"

Harry shrugged and looked worried. "I hope everything is okay, it's public knowledge that I'm close to your family, you don't reckon Fudge would…"

Ginny mirrored his shrug and then bit her lip. "I doubt it, even Fudge isn't that petty."

…

"I can't believe that he's that petty!" snapped Perkins as he paced the floor.

Arthur Weasley sat at his desk in the department of misuse of muggle artifacts and stared at the piece of paper in his hand. As head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts he had been given the news by Amelia herself, and then been forced to inform his small staff of ten.

He remembered the earlier conversation vividly.

"I'm sorry Arthur, I can reassign you to another department and I'll even let you choose, but this is the minister's decision. We both know he's upset about the trial outcome and this is his way of childish vengeance because he knows the Potter boy is close to you."

Arthur Weasley returned to his office feeling as if his world had collapsed, his work as an unspeakable ensured that he'd have the talent to work anywhere at the department of magical law enforcement, but Muggles had always fascinated him, and his job had never seemed as such. Now, it seemed like he would never have the opportunity to add to his wonderful muggle artifact collection. To make matters worse he'd be forced to inform his staff about this.

"I know Perkins, I already spoke with Amelia, she and I will see that everyone is reassigned to a position as much to their liking as we can manage, but effective immediately the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office is closed."

Perkins, as well as the rest of his staff nodded and then left to clean out their desks and make their decisions on where they'd like to be reassigned. Most would attempt to rotate into the Auror squads, those who couldn't would opt for either the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures or the Improper Use of Magic Office.

With his own office once again vacant, he collapsed back into his chair staring at the clock. It was a charmed muggle digital one with no batteries needed. It had been confiscated on a raid. Normally they would overlook such a minor transgression but this clock also created a magical fireworks display for an alarm.

He blinked a few times as the minutes seemed to melt away.

"Arthur?"

He turned around to face his fireplace to see a surprisingly familiar face staring back at him. "Basil?"

"Come down to the department please, your presence has been requested."

He nodded mutely and made his way to the lift going down to level nine and then taking the hidden lift to level "S". He activated his SEP field charms as the lift doors began to open. While Basil and Clark still knew who he was, everyone else had been cleaned of that knowledge.

He stopped short seeing who was waiting for him.

"Hello Arthur dear, I just got the news and wanted to make sure you were alright."

"You honor me Madam Flamel, and I am very touched by your concern."

She waved him off. "Please Arthur I had to go through all the formality that you know I hate with Molly already, now are you alright?"

"I'll manage somehow, Madam Flamel, it was just a bit of a shock, I knew that Fudge was aware how our family is to Harry, but for him to attack my position just to get back at him was something I assumed was below him. Apparently I gave him far more credit than he deserves."

She smiled at him. "I know you do so love your muggle toys Arthur, and with your skill at charming them it's a wonder you're not a D-branch person. But I came first to see that you were alright. You're getting there I can tell, but what position would be best for you is the question I find myself asking. I am not trying to enforce anything on you, but didn't you mention you had a son who worked for Gringotts?"

"Bill, my oldest, is a curse-breaker for them. He specializes in creating and taking down wards and traps."

She nodded taking the information in. "As you well know, Fudge and his most likely successors are all very adamant on their stance on non-purebloods. Many of our fellow magical beings suffer because of there oppression. I think a man of your caliber in the Goblin Liaison office might have his hands full at first, but if he managed to befriend and understand the Goblin's better he might find it very much in his best interest. Especially with certain developments underway."

Arthur blinked, Perenelle Flamel obviously knew far more than she was letting on, but she wasn't willing to divulge anymore information and he wouldn't pry. "I've always been fascinated with the Goblin culture, perhaps not as much as muggles, but then Goblins have impressive inroads into Muggle society."

Perenelle smiled at him. "Very good Arthur, see if you can convince Perkins to come with you, I daresay you'd want your right hand man with you for this. I'll make sure that Cornelius can't block your path in this, and I believe Ragnok will have much to discuss with you." She gave him a smirk that surprised him, for as long as his family had known the Flamel's he had never seen a mischievous streak in her before.

"Basil, Clark, do join us; we were just discussing some options for Arthur now that his office is being closed." She said bringing two men out from the shadows.

"I daresay Arthur, still not willing to give us full time? Those two part-timers you found, Paladin and Firebrand? They are quite the capable pair. They'll be infiltrating Hogwarts this year?"

"Quite so, they'll be getting information for us from the inside and they'll also be on hand to protect certain assets in place that we don't want to see any harm come to. The Potter lad for example. You've both seen how Dumbledore has made inroads to controlling him." If Arthur Weasley were less an operative he'd have smirked or done something to reveal the truth. As it was, years of concealing the truth allowed him to brush the line off so naturally that both Basil and Clark, now void of any memories of Harry or Ginny assumed that the assets he had going into Hogwarts would report on them. They both nodded their agreement and turned to leave the room.

"Good luck Arthur, we'll still call you no matter where you go. Ragnok's a good man, err Goblin. He's aware of us and what we do, but keeps the secrecy as good or better than any personnel we have." With that Basil and Clark left, and Perenelle gave him a nod.

"I will allow you to inform Amelia of your decision; meanwhile, I need to send a letter to your two. Rosette!" the Phoenix appeared in a burst of flames and she quickly quilled a note and handed it to her. "Veuillez prendre cette lettre à Harry, merci." The bird nodded and trilled a lovely melody before once again vanishing in a ball of flame.

"My thanks Madam Flamel. I can see myself home, I'm sure Molly's wondering where I am by now."

"Do take care Arthur, and keep an eye on my godson and your lovely daughter. Adieu."

With that she apparated out of the ministry. For his part Arthur Weasley took the lift upstairs not realizing the full effect his decision would have on the Wizarding world when all would be said and done.

…

As they were heading to the kitchen Harry felt a familiar presence approaching and stopped suddenly. Ginny who had been right behind him smacked into him prompting a quick apology. Before she could ask why he stopped Rosette appeared in a flash of flame. She settled on Ginny's shoulder and held out the letter for him to take.

"Rosette?" he asked surprised before taking the letter. "Merci beaucoup, veuillez dire le grand-mère qu'i dit vous remercient de l'été merveilleux. " Rosette gently nuzzled his ear with her beak and then pushing off Ginny's shoulder was gone again in a flash.

"Harry?"

"Yes Ginny?"

"When did you learn to speak French?"

"I didn't, I used the pendant to do it for me."

She blinked. She had forgotten about some of his more useful items. He saw her expression and smiled. "I know I missed your birthday Gin, but I did get you a few presents. You'll have to wait till later tonight. Shall we see what Grand-mère has to say?" he asked as he opened the letter.

The contents of the letter almost made his heart stop and he abruptly sat down on the floor.

Ginny followed suit and that's where the twins found them a few minutes later. "Oi you two, best not let Mum see you like that…

"She'd go spare…"

"Either yelling about inappropriateness… "

"Or planning a wedding."

"What's wrong?" they asked in unison finally realizing that something was up.

Ginny looked at Harry and then shook her head. "It's not our place to say. You'll find out at dinner."

They made their way to the kitchen and mutely set to work setting the table. A minute later Ron, followed by the Twins, and finally Hermione, joined them just as Mr. Weasley flooed home from work. "Evening all, Molly whatever you've got in the oven smells wonderful."

He caught the eye from the two youngest people at the table and shook his head. He'd let everyone know after dinner.

"Hello Arthur," she said, giving her husband a welcome home kiss and hug. She waved her wand bringing the food to the table. "Now Fred, George mind your manners. We have guests after all."

"Really Mum?"

"Because I think by now…"

"Harry and Hermione…"

"Count like family…"

"Rather than guests…"

"I do think they have a point Mrs. Weasley. Not that they shouldn't mind their manners of course," added Harry, backpedaling from his earlier statement before she could glare at him.

"Oh you children!" she sighed at long last and they sat down for dinner.

The meal was, as always excellent. Before long Harry and Ginny, as the two youngest, were clearing the table. Ron and Hermione stood up to wash the dishes, but Arthur indicated for them to wait.

"I have some news to tell all of you." Bill should be here shortly, but I couldn't get a hold of Charlie so we'll have to tell him later."

The twins exchanged a look and then turned to look at their father completely serious for a change. "What's going on Dad?"

"Does it have something to do with you-know-who? "

"Does it have something to do with Hogwarts?"

"Does it have something to do with Quidditch?"

At that statement everyone looked at Ron like he had sprouted another head. "What?" he asked defensively, "Why does it have to be bad news? It could be something like Dad has gotten advanced tickets to next year's Quidditch cup, or better yet he was given season passes to the Cannons!"

The silence in the room was only broken by the sound of Bill Flooing into the family room. "Okay what's going on?"

"Hello Bill, have a seat." When all the Weasley's plus Harry and Hermione minus Charlie and Percy were sitting Mr. Weasley let the cat out of the bag.

"This morning the Minister of Magic saw fit to close the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office."

He paused as gasps echoed across the room except from where Harry and Ginny sat silent.

"Madam Bones has helped me reassign my staff, and Perkins will be coming with me."

"Dad what do you mean Perkins will be coming with you?"

"Well, I'll still be employed by the ministry, but I was requested for a new position and my office will be outside the ministry now, I'll have to go by a few times a week, so I'll maintain an office near Madam Bones. Perkins will be coming with me as my assistant."

"What position?"

"I will be the wizard ambassador to the Goblin Nations, recommended by both Madam Bones, and a few influential outsiders. The fact that my son works for Gringotts gets me a lot of sway by the Goblin nations, more than an outsider would normally have."

"WHAT!"

"Well technically my title will be Arthur Weasley head of the Office of Wizard and Goblin affairs, Perkins has always been my right hand man and has agreed to assist me. Officially my job will be to liaise with the Goblins to assist them to enforce ministry law on there people, err goblins."

The family was stunned. While the position was quite a promotion, albeit a forced one, the happiness about the forced promotion was tempered by the reminder that Arthur loved working with muggle things and his previous position was as much hobby as job.

Later that night Harry and Ginny cornered him in the family room alone.

"Okay Dad what gives?"

"What do you mean sweetheart?"

"Don't sweetheart me Daddy, Grand-mere sent us a letter letting us know that your department bit the bullet and she also mentioned the reason. What does Fudge have against you?"

"He doesn't have anything against me. He's scared of Harry," he explained, prompting a snort from the boy who lived.

"You've got to be kidding me, I'm just a sixth year at Hogwarts, why on earth is he scared of me?"

"Harry you just escaped his carefully planned plot to banish you into prison, you've managed to out-wit, out-smart or out-luck him at every turn this last year. He's a paranoid politician, of course he's going to view you as a threat."

"And he's going after you Mr. Weasley because he knows I'm close to your family?"

Arthur nodded and Harry developed a feral grin. "Hey Gin, I need to get a hold of the professor, I think it's time for the wizarding world to become flooded in charmed muggle artifacts."

They shared a grin before exiting the family room each heading for their own bed.

Much later that night they met in their Trunks. Ginny walked around Harry's, very impressed with the job he done with the furniture in the common living area. "This is quite nice."

"Thank you, I had a good deal of help with it, I wasn't trying to get into decorating as well…" he mentioned waving his hand around the room that was very tastefully decorated with Gryffindor colors. "But Grand-mère thought it would be a good idea to help keep my mind off the trial."

Ginny nodded and then hugged her knees. "I'm going to miss her this year. I've heard about her from Carver before, but I never thought I'd meet her. Now that I have I didn't want to have to leave her. She's a lot like Mum, except she respects our independence. "

"I know what you mean, last year I didn't even know I had a godmother, and now I'd rather stay with her than go to Hogwarts. Do you reckon he knows?"

"I don't know, before last year I would have said no, but my operation at Hogwarts didn't really begin until last year and that's when I started watching him more carefully."

"Wait last year? I thought you've been watching us since you started."

"Oh I have, I just haven't been observing Dumbledore until last year, up till then I was like everyone else in that aspect, he's the champion of light surely he would do no wrong. Looking at your life now though I know everyone is wrong. What kind of man would send a child to those monsters."

Harry shrugged, not really wanting to go into that at the moment. "The same kind of man who would sacrifice one innocent life to redeem a psychopathic madman bent on world domination and genocide?"

Ginny couldn't help but giggle at the way Harry had casually described Tom Riddle, it turned out to be contagious and after a few minutes both were rolling on the floor laughing. "It must be really late, cause that was not that funny," stated Harry, after the two had regained their composure.

"It is, but don't worry. I'll keep an eye on the way things are headed at

Hogwarts. You just have to be ready to throw the battle magic when the

hippogriffs come to call."

Harry nodded and then pulled out a package. "Happy belated birthday from Grand-mère, Uncle Nicholas, and me," he said, feeling a bit shy for some odd reason. He was suddenly glad he had taken off the card he had originally placed on the gift. He had written on it

I want you to know who I really am,

I never thought I'd feel this way towards you,

And if you ever need someone to come along

I will follow you and keep you strong.

It was something that sounded like a cheesy pick up line or song lyric, and definitely not fitting for a birthday gift for a friend.

"Thank you," she replied quietly and then proceeded to prove she was a Weasley by utterly demolishing the wrapping paper holding the gift.

She stopped and her jaw dropped as she opened the package and realized what it held. "Harry these are…"

"A set to match mine, and these…" he added producing a smart looking pair of reading glasses, "Have all the charms my glasses do, though with your already perfect vision you'll have to find some excuse to wear them around Hogwarts when you want to."

She smiled and gave him a friendly hug. "Thank you Harry, I'll have to write to Grand-mère and Uncle Nicholas to thank them. Oh will the owls be able to find them?"

"Yeah, I plan to write to her as much as I can. Oh she mentioned that with our new security measures we're still supposed to report on ourselves, that way no one back at headquarters would guess that you are Firebrand, or I'm Paladin." His face adopted a frustrated look before he continued. "I understand operational security far better than most, but I still don't understand why they had to go so far in protecting our identities. I mean the fact that grand-mère released us from our Oaths shows an enormous amount of trust. I want to live up to it, but at the same time I don't know what prompted this move."

Ginny sighed and carefully put on, or put away her new gifts and gear. While Harry's had been made practical and been built to hide, her set of rings, earpieces, and pendants were made to show off the fact that she was a trendy witch with some style. Instead of the earpiece that Harry had, her set was very pretty crystal earrings. "I talked to Grand-mère a little about that after you left. Apparently Fudge is trying to shake down every department trying to find out how you managed to escape the ministry. Right now it's just precaution."

Harry nodded and then yawned. "We should get started on planning, or we'll never be able to wake up in the morning."

…

Despite his words to the contrary Harry and Ginny rose quietly and early. They made their way outside where they went through their morning exercises. Finished before the sun made it's way up the pair did a final gear check. Satisfied that everything was where it ought to be they made their way to the kitchen and enjoyed a silent sunrise with a cup of tea and a pepper up potion. They had been up far into the night planning for the year and they were enjoying the peace of

the morning.

Peace and quiet that quickly gave way to chaos as the rest of the inhabitants of the Burrow awoke.

Harry looked on, amused, as Ron scrambled to find his favorite Chudley Cannons t-shirt. He snickered to himself as Ron passed it twice while asking his mum where it was. Taking pity on his friend, Harry finally picked up the shirt and tossed it to him. "Try opening your eyes next time Ron," he said, with his tongue firmly planted inside his cheek.

On the floor below Ginny was watching the twins pack. As they were now of age they were swinging their wands around making all their belongings dance into their trunks. She held down a giggle as a pair of socks ran and leapt into the trunk without any feet in them.

"Hurry up now children!"

"How are we getting to Kings Cross Mum?"

"Your father arranged for us to have a couple cars from the ministry take us to the Station. The order will be standing by for our arrival so we have to hurry along now."

The group piled into the ministry cars with their luggage, Harry helped Ginny and Hermione with theirs using a bit of discreet wandless magic to lighten the load. The group arrived at Kings Cross station and paired up to go through the border at Platform 9-3/4. Harry and Ginny were to go in after Fred and George, with Ron and Hermione following them. Harry had his glasses running and was looking at the security measures in place. Most of the charms and wards he had already learned but there were a couple he made a mental note to learn. He then looked at the discrete guards in place; Dumbledore had what seemed like half of the order hidden in different areas of the station. The ministry had three Aurors tailing them and he noted that they had also placed some tracking and monitoring charms on them. He reached over as they walked through the wall and gave Ginny's shoulder a quick double squeeze. She recognized the sign for 'no immediate danger but we're being watched.'

She playfully pushed him and smirked. "Hey Potter, think you can handle a few rounds of exploding snap once we're on the train?"

He smiled at her response, for one he enjoyed exploding snap, for the other it gave them a setup for private conversation. "You're on Weasley, but this time remember to put up the silencing charms, the last time we did this on the train we got yelled at for making all the racket."

She snorted. "Yeah, Malfoy can throw open our door, insult us and threaten us, but we get a bit over enthusiastic with our game of exploding snap and we get snapped at."

He shrugged. "If there's one thing I've learned at my time at Hogwarts," he said mainly for the interfering ears that were listening in. "You can get away with anything if your name's Malfoy, but if it's Potter you can expect to be insulted and belittled at every turn, especially by greasy git potion masters."

He could hear snickering behind him and realized that Tonks must have been one of the people assigned to tail them. They waved to people they knew and made their way to the train. Ron left to find Neville, "Need to compare notes from what Moody gave us yesterday." He said by way of explanation.

"We'll save you both a seat mate, come find us."

"And don't forget Ronald, we have the prefects meeting so don't take too long!"

"I'll go find Luna and we'll be a complete set," said Ginny, handing Harry her trunk, which he took with no argument. The Twins had grabbed Ron's and they followed Hermione onto the Express.

"We'll find a compartment. Shall we?" she asked to the boys accompanying her.

…

Arthur Weasley took a deep breath and then walked into Gringotts. Bypassing all the lines he made his way to the counter and then tapped a panel with his wand. The portion of the wall slid away and an honor guard of five goblins immediately surrounded him. The rest of the patrons who were in Gringotts that early merely stood and watched in mute astonishment as the wizard walked into the back offices. The looks they gave were somewhere between horror, pity and wonder. No wizard except those employed by Gringotts ever went back through those doors, especially not one employed by the Ministry of Magic.

"Good morning Mr. Weasley," said the voice from behind the desk in the office he had been escorted to.

"Good profit to you Director Ragnok," replied Arthur Weasley, prompting a look of respect to flash across the Goblin's face. "I see, Perenelle did mention you were a good sort. Here." He passed a small scroll to Arthur. "These are the current laws in progress of the Wizengamot that we have a problem with." He paused and then handed him a much larger scroll. "These are the questionable transactions made to the Minister of Magic's personal Bank account by several suspected and confirmed death eaters."

Arthur smiled and handed Ragnok a small scroll of there own. "This is an edict from the Ministry of Magic insisting that you reign in some of your people and conform to ministry policies regarding exchange rates." He then pulled out a much larger scroll of his own. "This is from Madam Flamel to you, contents unknown."

Ragnok smiled a toothy grin and did something that rarely happened. He extended his hand to Arthur Weasley. "Mr. Weasley I believe that this may be the start of a wonderful working relationship. And speaking as such here, this is a key to the Black Ink. Inc., vault. A copy of the key will be sent to all pertinent parties and do inform Mr. Potter that his ability to change and shift his aura is very impressive, but if he's transferring money from his own vault, it's rather obvious who he is. And also let him know that as a security measure all Goblin tellers are able to see through invisibility cloaks, disillusionment charms and magical disguises. Should he wish to disguise himself better in the future I would recommend the muggle way, at least for the face. It tends to work the best."

Arthur grinned and nodded. "I'll pass that along, forgive the lad, he's new to the game."

"Indeed, he was very impressive for a first timer then. He chose a remarkable disguise that looked enough like him that it probably was very simple to maintain, but different enough that no one would mistake him for his persona. Also advise him that Mr. Black will always be welcomed at Gringotts, at any time.

The pair then turned their attention back to official business and began debating on an important subject – the point spread for this years' Quidditch World Cup.

…

Not long after boarding the Express the group was assembled in one of the last compartments. A few minutes after that Neville and Ron entered and Hermione stood up blushing a little bit and grabbed Ron's arm. "About time you decided to join us, now hurry up, or we'll be late!"

The rest of the occupants just traded an amused look with each other. Neville finally took a seat and looked at the twins. "Ron told me you two were coming back for more, what brought this on?"

The twins traded a look and then shrugged and said in one voice, "Mum. Right scary she was, threatened to disown us if we didn't at least complete our NEWTS. As the shop is doing well in mail-order and as we prefer Mum's cooking to learning how; we decided in this instance it might be a good idea to listen to her."

Neville began to chuckle and Harry did an admirable job at holding his own laughter in. The group talked about several topics ranging from Quidditch to potions, and then Hermione and Ron rejoined them. As they did the twins said they were going to find Katie Bell and chat about Quidditch.

"So Neville, Luna; how have your summers been?" asked Harry.

"I've had fun learning from Professor Moody, he's a right good teacher when he's not being paranoid. I swear Harry I don't think I've ever met anyone that paranoid."

If Neville had known at that moment Harry was armed with enough security devices to make Mad-Eye Moody look like a clueless squib he might have changed his tune. Instead Neville continued talking about a few of his lessons while Harry and Ginny exchanged an amused look and then looked to Luna.

"Well I spent the first half of my summer with father in Holland looking for a herd of Crumple Horn Snorkacks, but it ended up being a pack of venomous doozled drinkos. Then we came home and I heard about your trial. Then I spent the rest of the summer at St. Mungo's."

"St. Mungo's! Did you hurt yourself Luna?" asked Ron, prompting Ginny to snicker quietly to herself.

"Oh no, father arranged for me to get some training there, he almost got mauled by an angry doozled drinko on the trip and he decided that one of us had to know more than basic first aid spells."

"But Luna," said Hermione being logical, "How did you get around the underaged laws to train? And those creatures don't exist how could he almost get mauled by one?"

Luna gave Hermione an almost pitying look. "Hermione, surely you realize that they trace our magic through our wands, I just used father's wand and he used a spare wand he had." She said answering her first question but acting completely oblivious to her second one.

"Right, well it's good to know that you've got some healing spells under your hat Luna, and we'd love to learn them at some point."

"Sure Harry, but don't you think what you learned over the summer is much better than a few healing spells?"

Harry gave Luna a bemused and cloying look while Ginny whispered "Humor her" loud enough for Neville to hear.

"Right Luna, but I think it'd be important just the same." And then gave her a sharp look and twitched his eyes in Neville and Ron's direction.

Luna caught the glare and returned her attention to her copy of the quibbler. Hermione excused herself to the girls room and Ron stood up and left to hunt down the food trolley and everyone rolled their eyes; Ron's appetite being the stuff of legends.

Harry was relaxing until he felt one of his wards tripped and leaned forward giving Ginny a countdown with his fingers as he spoke. "Hey Gin, would you show me your Bat-bogey hex again?"

As his last finger was moving down she cast her bat-bogey hex which nailed the face of one Draco Malfoy the moment he shoved the door open hard enough to rattle the glass in the window.

As he ran back down the hall screaming followed by his two goons Harry called after him, "Sorry Malfoy, didn't realize you were right there, if you had only knocked that wouldn't have happened!" He returned to the cabin to find Neville giving him a puzzled look. "Something on your mind Nev?"

"How did you do that Harry?"

"Do what Neville?"

"Time with Malfoy? That was too perfect to be coincidence, that you happen to trick Ginny into casting it right when Malfoy threw open the door."

Harry was surprised, he knew his friend was more talented than he let on, and one of the best members of the DA, but working under Moody's wings had done wonders for him. He hadn't caught all the signals but he did see far more than the average wizard and Harry knew he'd have to come up with something plausible so he went with a half-truth.

"I put a muggle device that went off when someone approached the cabin. If they had knocked first, or opened the door normally it would have missed them. I counted on Malfoy trying his annual attempt at intimidation and the fact that he's just thrown the door open in the past. That was brilliant by the way." He added, looking at Ginny who smiled back at him.

The rest of the train ride passed without event and the group walked toward the carriages with Harry once again trying to ignore all the staring from his fellow students. After they climbed into one of the carriages Neville turned to Harry.

"Hey Harry will you be starting up the DA again? I learned a lot last year from you and would like the chance to do so again."

Harry gave him a confused look. "Aren't you training with a Ministry Auror? How would I compare to that, if anything I should get you and Ron to give me lessons. Besides, the DA was for when we had a brainless defense teacher. I'm sure this year will be better and it might not even be needed. If anything, I'm planning on turning it into a dueling club or something."

Hermione gave him the look this time and Ginny just shook her head. Luna looked up and said what was on everyone's mind. "That's okay for now but would you be willing to teach again if we needed it?"

Harry reluctantly nodded but then added, "I don't mind, but if we need it we're changing the name. I don't want to be connected to Dumbledore like that; look how much trouble it caused last year." The rest of the group happily agreed.

"They're really not that bad looking once you get used to them," said Ginny to Harry as she nodded toward the Thestrals.

"When did you get to be able to see Thestrals, Ginny?" asked Ron, surprised, as he wasn't able to see them.

"Oh I've been able to see them since, well before term started," she said, trying to infer that it had happened during their trip to the ministry. In truth it had been on the assignment prior to the capture mission to prove Harry's innocence. She had been observing a suspected death eater hide-out and when the strike team was inserted they had been a bit enthusiastic in ensuring the death eaters wouldn't hurt

anyone else again.

Her words effectively killed all conversation and the remainder of the ride to the school was made in silence.

…

The sorting proceeded without any major mishaps and all was proceeding as normal until half-way through the meal. Nearly two-thirds of the student body let out a loud squawk and turned into giant canaries. A few seconds later they all molted and with a little pyrotechnical display a banner dropped down at the end of the Great hall.

"The New Marauders would like to take a moment to welcome all the students back to Hogwarts, and remind you that while you may be safe from You-Know- Who, you're never safe from our pranks!"

As the banner itself exploded, showering everyone with glitter, Dumbledore rose to give his beginning of the year speech.

"Thank you to the New Marauders," he said looking towards Harry and the twins. "And welcome students both new and old, to another year at Hogwarts. With Voldemort's return…" he paused while most of the students and staff gasped at the name. Harry and his friend rolled their eyes at this. "…finally acknowledged by the Ministry of Magic, it is time for a few changes to the rules here at Hogwarts. All students would do well to remember that the Forbidden Forest is just that, forbidden. In the past certain parties have felt the need to enter this area, but I would warn any who feel their lives a folly that special security measures have been implemented to prevent any of the dark lord's followers entrance through that route. As a result the area is even more dangerous than it has been in past years. Do not even approach the area unless you are accompanied by a staff member."

He made a point to look at the Gryffindor table before continuing. "Furthermore, with the latest developments in the war, I have decided to let one of England's premier experts on defense against the dark arts finally take his place as teacher for the class. Because of this I had to replace his former position so please welcome the new potions teacher Professor Slughorn, and welcome to the position of defense against the dark arts Professor Snape."

The Slytherins cheered, and the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs clapped politely, but if looks could kill Severus Snape would be dead from all the death glares given to him by the Gryffindors. To everyone at the table's surprise both Harry and Ginny stood up to give the professors a round of applause. They were quickly joined by Hermione and eventually everyone at the table joined in, much to Snape's shock.

"Mr. Filch would like me to remind students the use of magic is prohibited in the halls, and would like to mention that the entire product line of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes are prohibited items. The full listing of prohibited items, which I believe includes their mail order catalogues, can be found on the door to his office. On that note I would also like to welcome back Misters Fred and George Weasley who have decided with the retirement of Madam Umbridge, to return to Hogwarts for the completion of their NEWTS."

Fred and George stood to cat-calls and cheers from three-quarters of the hall and boos from the Slytherins.

"I would also like to congratulate all members of the entity known as Dumbledore's Army, all of who outscored their classmates on their defense scores, but would like to remind all students that such organizations must have a staff member as their advisor and abide by school rules. Any clubs not conforming to this edict passed by the board of Governors will be dissolved." Almost as one every member of the DA glared at him but he only met their gaze with his familiar twinkle in his eyes.

Before anyone could take any further action the members of the DA found themselves transforming into large Aardvarks.

"The members of the Elite 5 wishes to thank every member of Dumbledore's Aardvarks for making the rest of the student body look pitiful on our tests last year. We wish all students good luck on their tests this year and extend this challenge to the so-called New Marauders: an all out Prank-War, but with no interruptions during classes. Some students take their studies seriously. Sincerely, the E5."

…

That night there the Gryffindor Common room was entreated by a loud argument in which all parties involved agreed.

"I don't know who this E5 is but they challenged the wrong group of pranksters!" shouted Fred Weasley.

"I agree, attacking the DA was a low blow, even if it's disbanded now. I want to know who did it, and I want to prank them until they beg for mercy."

"Gee Harry why don't you tell us how you really feel, and for that matter, what makes you so sure we can out prank this E5 group anyway?"

"We'll prank everyone and watch for reactions. Simple really."

The group began speaking of pranking plans and didn't seem to notice the door to the common room open and close with no one there. They continued their long discussion on pranking for another 5 minutes.

"Are we clear?" asked Harry who was watching the room with mage sight, it wasn't easy; there was so much ambient magic innate to Hogwarts it was giving him a splitting headache.

"We're all clear," announced Ginny who along with Fred had been monitoring the Marauder's Map. "Target Twinkles just started up the stairs to his office. And target Meow is safely in her room."

"Excellent, so how do we run this prank war?"

"We'll mainly let the Marauders do small pranks, a few major ones here and there but the big ones will be E5, that way the suspicion's not on us. As a rule the Marauders will avoid over pranking the Gryff's while E5 will avoid the Claw's."

"One thing I don't understand is why do this prank war thing in the first place?"

"Two main reasons Hermione. Reason one, with the war looming everyone could use a good laugh now and again. And more importantly reason two, it gives us an excuse to meet each other in odd situations at odd times and won't arouse anyone's suspicions."

"What do you mean won't arouse suspicions? People will think we're meeting to plan pranks and they'll be plenty suspicious."

"And that's the true genius behind my plan. If people already think we're meeting secretly to run a prank war they'll never suspect we're doing some kind of special training, or doing something that would give Dumbledore's order ulcers."

Hermione's mouth dropped open and Harry grinned. A second later she grinned back and responded. "We need a name for ourselves. Not for the prank war, but when we operate outside of Hogwarts."

"Already taken care of. One of my cover names is Mr. Black, so I started a new company. As of now we are all members of Black Ink."

"You mean Black Inc?"

"No Black Ink, I thought it'd be a bit funnier that way. We could leave a bottle of Black Ink when we work, as a calling card of sorts."

The twins were strangely silent for a time looking at Harry with new respect.

"Let us get this straight…"

"You arranged a prank war…"

"In which we will be running both sides…"

"So that you could hold secret meetings…"

"And operate outside of Hogwarts…"

"Without anyone getting suspicious…"

"Of what we're really up to…"

"When we aren't around?"

Harry nodded in amusement that was furthered when they dropped to their knees and began bowing to him.

"We're not worthy!" They chanted in unison, managing to make even Hermione snicker.

"I can't take all the credit, it was actually a true pranking genius who came up with the idea of running a prank war with two sides so that we could do other things without people thinking we were up to something. Well something other than pranks."

"A true genius eh Gred?"

"Indeed Forge, tell us Harry who is this pranking genius?"

"It can't be Hermione she's already admitted her ignorance to this matter."

"And it can't be Ronniekins as we're not including him in this meeting."

"So it must be…"

"Gin-gin?"

"Call me Gin-gin again and you can be the first real victims of an E5 attack." She snapped at them. "Besides it's something Grand-mère taught me over the summer, always plant a lie inside a truth, it makes it easier to swallow."

Hermione nodded sagely at the bit of wisdom. "Okay we better turn in, tomorrow's the first day of classes and we don't know what we'll have."

"Well hopefully you and I will share most of the same schedule, since I dropped divination and picked up Ancient Runes and Arithmancy."

"Harry I thought Nicholas said you weren't that good in Arithmancy?"

"I'm not, but I'd like to get better. Runes will be my easy class."

"Easy? Harry I'm not sure if you realize it, but Runes are a terribly difficult branch of magic, for the most part we only cover the theory there have been only three wizards and four witches in the last century who could actually do any Rune based magic outside of wards."

"You mean like this?" he asked innocently and quickly used his wand to trace two runes in the air which created a strong breeze around them.

Hermione's mouth dropped open and Harry beat a hasty retreat up the stairs to his dorm room before she could start asking questions. As he was gone she turned her attention back to Ginny.

"Don't look at me; this is only the second time I've seen him do that."

…

Up in his dorm he walked over to where Ron and Neville were poring over their assignment from Moody.

"Hey guys," he said by way of conversation. As he walked toward his four poster bed he glanced at their assignment. Recognizing it as one of the first spells Clark had taught him he bit his lip before he could explain it to them. He was impressed though, Moody wasn't messing around with the lessons; the bone crushing hex was a nasty piece of work. Not as bad as the bone shattering hex that Harry had come to prefer which was also easier to cast, but nasty just the same.

"Hey Harry, take a look at this," said Neville, motioning him over.

Harry inwardly sighed and walked over and glanced at the paperwork. "Ouch! That looks like a nasty one, Nev."

"It is," put in Ron, "Moody decided we needed a hands on demonstration so each of us had our non-wand hand crushed."

Harry winced in sympathy for his two friends, he had been the unlucky recipient of the curse in a training accident where he dodged the wrong way and it took a cup of Skele-Gro and a night to recover.

"So you guys have it down now?"

"We hope so, we have to meet up with him this weekend to go over it, if we don't get it we get to experience the curse again as a refresher."

Harry shuddered and not for the first time was glad he had gotten his training from his godmother and her associates… though Moody's training method reminded him an awful lot of McLain's so-called Spartan training. "I'm glad it's you two and not me doing this, at least I won't have to worry about you two learning how to protect yourselves."

"Yeah, Moody's gotten the ministry to approve of a junior Auror force. Neville and I are already a part of it. It should be in the Daily Prophet in a day or two."

Harry smiled at his red-headed friend. "That's great mate! Good on you two! Anyone else I know involved in this program?"

"A couple of the older DA members joined, I think Katie Bell might have been approached too, Cho Chang, Macmillan, and Smith are the ones I know for sure. Luna turned it down, said she had to go to France to check on a Crumple-Horned Snorkack sighting."

Harry saw Ron blush when he mentioned Luna and saw Neville roll his eyes. "Well congrats mates, if we can work some kind of defense club training perhaps I can get you guys to teach us instead of me." He yawned and stretched, "I think I'm gonna turn in now, don't stay up too late, we've got classes tomorrow and we don't know who or what yet."

"Before you turn in Harry, what was the deal at dinner?"

"Clapping for Snape?"

"Yeah?"

"Gringott's Goblins Rules of Acquisition number 37: Once in a while declare peace. It will confuse the hell out of your enemies." He gave them a wave and then turned in for the night leaving his two friends staring. They were looking at him completely gobsmacked, if they only knew that his Goblin Rule of Acquisition was a piece of fiction he'd gotten from an American book a year back they'd curse him. He made a mental note to give the book to Mr. Weasley, if the Goblins had a sense of humor they'd probably enjoy the book. He also hoped they'd think that he was implying he spent his summer with the Goblins, he took out a parchment and wrote a quick note 'Drop hints spent time with Goblins, ask "G" for tips on how Goblins live.'

…

"Spill Weasley."

"What are you talking about Hermione?" asked Ginny confused.

"How did you and Harry do that? Potions? That was an amazing bit of transfiguration that affected every member of the DA."

"Now Hermione what makes you so sure that it was me and not Harry?"

"The shock on his face showed me that it the timing was a surprise, the fact that you aren't surprised I'm accusing you, the fact that I saw you put your hand under the table right before we all changed."

Ginny smiled. In fact it had been Harry using a strong bit of wandless, wordless magic. She had pretended to pull her wand out under the table to make everyone think it might have been her. Just in case. "You've got me Hermione, I used a three part spell. The first part was a potion that I smuggled into the pumpkin juice, the second part was keyed into the DA galleons, the final part was a quick burst of magic to activate it."

It was in fact mostly the truth, the only difference was that Harry had triggered the spell and not her, she had brewed the potion and Dobby had smuggled it into the kitchens and into the drinks.

Hermione finally nodded, her curiosity satisfied, and she went up to bed leaving the youngest Weasley to watch the fire, her hands absentmindedly stroking her new pendant around her neck.

…

In his office Albus Dumbledore sat troubled. On one hand he had his weapon, the Boy Who Lived. The prophecy ensured that Harry Potter was the weapon to be wielded against Voldemort. He himself had proved that fact 15 years ago when he marked the child as his equal. On the other hand there was a boy, Harry, just Harry, who wanted nothing more than to finish his schooling and live his life innocent about some of the harsher realities of the world.

Watching Harry interact with his friends he once again felt an emotion he hadn't felt in a long time; in fact he hadn't felt it in nearly fifty years, since the time he had killed the Dark Wizard Grindelwald: guilt. Is it right for me to meddle in the life of this boy? I've never felt this empty before.' he had asked himself on more than one occasion in the last hour. Watching him plan his prank war reminded him of his own school days back in far more innocent times.

If I don't manage to turn Tom back from the dark, the wizarding world is doomed. Young Harry has great potential but he will never be allowed to live long enough to develop it. And the prophecy states that neither can live while the other survives, but if Harry can force Voldemort to regress back to the man Tom Riddle once was both could co-exist. But if Harry were to amass enough power to defeat him…' He shook his head determined not to think down that road. For any wizard to have that much power would almost certainly turn them dark.

So absorbed in his own thoughts, he missed the pitying looks Fawkes gave him. Fawkes, seeing his thoughts, was reminded of a man he had known is an age far past. A man whose own magical power made him a legend in his own time, as even the mighty King Arthur sought his council for years. He had used the so-called dark-arts in battle and yet had never become a dark wizard. Yes, Merlin was perhaps the only being that Fawkes thought could accurately be compared to the potential power in young Harry Potter. If only Albus would realize what he had in front of him. The phoenix sang a sad tune hoping that his companion would see the light before he strayed from the already narrow and perilous path he was walking down.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I tried to use the same tactics as Dumbledore to guilt J.K. Rowling and her publishers to give me the rights to the Harry Potter Universe but it didn't work. I tried the same thing with Rorsch and received a strange package from the M.O.B. Oh well.

Special thanks to my Beta's as always CassieP and KdtheRavenclaw.

Sorry this chapter is a bit later than planned I was having problems with Chapter 3 and didn't want to post this until I at least had that into early beta. Fudi

Chapter 2: I Don't Care Anymore 

Morning at Hogwarts found three students outside running around the lake. Had anyone else been up they would have been surprised to find Harry, Ginny and Hermione running laps before the sun rose.

It had been something of a shock for Hermione, but Ginny had practically dragged her outside and then threatened to hex her unless she ran.

An hour and a half later, an exhausted Hermione dropped into her seat at the Gryfindor table. Harry and Ginny, both of whom were a bit worried she was going to collapse, flanked her on each side. Ginny wordlessly handed her recovery and pepper up potions, which the bushy-haired girl downed in a single shot.

"Don't worry it gets better eventually." Said Ginny, feeling sorry for the other girl. Hermione nodded and quickly went through breakfast.

Neville and Ron joined them as they were finishing breakfast and shook their heads at Hermione's antics.

"Bloody hell, she's putting it away like I usually do," said Ron in admiration.

"I hate to admit it Hermione, but he has a point."

She pointedly ignored him and reached for another roll only to have Harry intercept her hand and shake his head. "That's enough Hermione, if you eat anymore you'll end up feeling sick all day."

She glared at him but nodded and put her hand back down as he released his grip.

Finished eating, the group went up to get their schedules. Professor McGonagal walked up to the group. "Potter, Longbottom, Weasley I had thought you three were interested in the Auror corp, might I inquire as to why you aren't taking potions?"

"I didn't have the grades for it." Said Neville by way of explanation with Ron nodding.

"While Professor Snape might have required an O in potions to take his NEWT class, Professor Slughorn does not. Do you wish to change your class schedule at this time?" Neville and Ron nodded enthusiastically while Harry stood back.

"Mr. Potter?" she asked surprised that Harry hadn't joined the other two in their enthusiastic approach.

"I'm sorry professor, after my last experience with the ministry I'm a little wary of becoming an Auror now."

She gave him a look that was surprisingly understanding. "I do see where that might have had an effect on your post graduation plans, especially when your prospective employer seems intent on destroying your reputation." She paused and gave the young Gryffindor a note. "See me after classes today Potter."

The boys traded looks as she walked away. "Bloody hell mate! I thought you wanted to be an Auror!"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Ron, think about it for a second. Harry just spent a month hiding from the ministry after being wrongfully imprisoned on false charges."

Ron rolled his eyes. "He was falsely accused and had to stand trial last year and he still wanted to be an Auror."

To Harry's surprise the next voice to interrupt belonged to none other than Neville. He had expected Ron to have a retort for Hermione, but Neville stopped him with a glare. "Honestly Ron, would you want to work for the person who just tried to send you to Azkaban?"

"Well, no but..."

"Best be hurrying along now or we'll be late for class. What do schedules look like for everyone now?" asked Harry, subtley playing the peacemaker.

Ron and Neville looked down at their schedules and let out twin groans. "Potions." They said in strained unison.

Harry snickered and they glared at him. "Potter, you're a great prat."

Ginny looked over Harry's shoulder and read the Gryffindor 6th year's schedule for the day, "Potions for all but Harry, Double Herbology is all of you?" Every one nodded, "Hermione you and Harry will have to let me know how Runes go, and then everyone again in Charms?"

"I'm in Muggle studies while they're in Runes." Said Neville, blushing a little bit.

"Neville that's wonderful!" exclaimed Hermione. "Muggle studies was such an interesting class, seeing how wizards and witches view muggles is rather funny from a muggleborns perspective."

If possible Neville blushed brighter and Harry stepped in to save him by asking Ginny her schedule for the day.

"Double Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures, and ugh, Double Defense with professor greaseball," she added with a glare.

"You'll have to let us know what to expect Ginny, we've got him tomorrow afternoon."

"Let me know how potions goes with the new professor." she responded and three heads nodded.

As the group headed out of the Great Hall, Harry nodded a goodbye to the three heading towards the dungeons and followed Ginny to the transfiguration classroom. "Do you reckon the rest of the operation is in motion?"

She shrugged before replying. "If all goes well, we'll know by tomorrow morning's Daily Prophet." She stopped in front of the classroom and turned to him. "I'm looking forward to see how she handles it. You might have to give her an interview you know."

He winced at the thought of having to deal with the reporter who made his life hell his fourth year.

"Thanks for walking me to class." She added loud enough for her friends who had been edging closer trying to listen into the pair's conversation to hear.

Harry gave her robe clad figure an appreciative sweep and then gave her a bow. "The pleasure, my lady," he said appreciating her sudden blush, "was all mine."

Through her blush she glared at him as Harry's attention and his words made the rest of her classmates pay her far more attention than usual, the girls glaring at her, and the boys all looking to see what had captured the attention of the Wizarding world's boy-hero. "You'll pay for that Potter," she responded without actually vocalizing her words, using only her eyes, which prompted him to smirk back at her.

…

British Ministry of Magic roughly 11:00am

"Madam Bones?"

"Tonks? What do you need?" she asked one of her rising star Aurors.

"Rufus isn't going to tell you this, and it'd look awful for the Minister of Magic, especially with what he's just done, but in the two days since he shut down Weasley's Department," she said, referring to the office of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts. It was something that nearly everyone in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement referred to it by. "We've spent more time hunting down charmed and cursed muggle objects running amok than we have hunting down death eaters. Weasley and his boys may not have been paid much, but they sure took care of things." She added with a grin.

Madam Bones gave her a disapproving glare that would have made the young Auror very nervous had it not been followed by a wink before the floo connection was terminated.

"I'm so terribly sorry about the interruption Ms. Skeeter," she said with false sincerity. "Now where were we in our discussion?"

"Why Madam Bones, I believe you were telling me how you really were a Slytherin and not a Gryffindor, despite public records." The two women for perhaps the first time ever shared a grin. "Actually you were telling me about Minister Fudge's obsession with one Harry Potter."

Amelia Bones gave the reporter an arched eyebrow before continuing. "Indeed, the Minister seems to take an almost unhealthy stance against the lad. In the last two years he's tried to have the boy arrested and placed under ministry control twice. I take particular offense against what he's been doing, as it goes against both justice and honor. In fact I find myself wondering why he hasn't been forced to step down after spending a year telling England that Potter and Dumbledore were both insane attention mongers for trying to warn us about Voldemort and then being proved wrong in such a spectacular way..."

"Yes, it does make one wonder how he's managed to maintain his position for the last few months. Thank you for your time Madam Bones. Meeting with you to discuss possible death eaters in the newspaper business has been most… enlightening," came the nasally sweet voice of the reporter. Rita then made her way out of the ministry almost bouncing with glee.

Gringott's Bank, London Branch, Diagon Alley .

It was only his second day on the job and Arthur Weasley found himself locked in a battle of will and wits. He stared across the table at his foe and looked into his black eyes.

His opponent didn't flinch, if anything he seemed to grow more confident. Of course the fact that there were 5 of them to one of him may have had something to do with it. "Well Weasley? Do you yield or shall we let this continue?"

Arthur glared back. "I've come too far to back down now." He yanked a small round object out of his pocket and threw it down on the table.

One of his opponents grew silent and surrendered to the inevitable. The rest in turn began to reveal what they had kept hidden.

"Pair of aces"

"Two Pair"

"Three of a kind"

"Sorry boys, Weasley, four of a kind. It looks like I win." Griphook gave them all a toothy smile and reached for the pile of sickles on the table. It was almost the equivalent of fifty Galleons.

Arthur stopped him with a smirk before replying. "I have three words for you Griphook. Royal. Straight. Flush." He smiled, finally feeling vindicated for all the money he had lost in the earlier games.

While the goblins all groaned, Arthur Weasley smiled as he pulled the pile of sickles towards himself. Today was going to be a good day.

Ginevra Molly Weasley, who would most likely hex anyone who dared to refer to her by her full name, was not having a good day. Her morning had begun with double transfiguration. While normally this would be a class she enjoyed, Professor McGonagall seemed to be trying to cram information down their throats with an incredible fervor. It must have been because of OWLs.

Her time with the Flamels had been put to good use and all the information, with the minor exception of a few liner notes, was only review to her. She soon found herself bored in class, which quickly led to idleness, which led to her not paying attention to her class. She realized that this might be a rather big mistake as Professor McGonagall was now glaring at her rather openly.

"Miss Weasley, is there a reason why you aren't paying attention?"

"I have been paying attention Professor."

"Than would you care to explain the _Inanimatus Conjurus_ spell?"

"It's a conjuring spell used to conjure inanimate objects, most often furniture or dishes. In most cases it has a one to two hour spell time before the conjured item dissipates, and should never be used to conjure any organic matter such as food, though wood seems to be okay. It's the first conjuring spell taught to sixth year students as it's the simplest of the conjuring spells. It requires a careful flick of the wand while concentrating on the object you wish to conjure."

Her professor blinked in surprise, she hadn't been expecting her seemingly inattentive student to know so much detail about the spell.

As a matter of fact Ginny had used the spell many times. As a former, she reminded herself, _former_ field surveillance asset she had often used it to make her observation posts a little more bearable. She never created anything opulent or extravagant, but a simple cushion often helped on long postings. A quick glance around the room told her that her Ravenclaw classmates had been surprised she had known the answer so well, and had to stifle the snicker that she felt forming when one of them muttered "Bloody hell, one Granger makes it hard enough to earn points around here."

McGonagall rounded on him, having heard the comment as well, and deftly deducted 5 points for his comment before awarding her 5 points for her answer. "Well Miss Weasley, for a chance to get out of your essay tonight and for five more points do you think you could demonstrate the spell?"

Ginny placed an unsure look on her face and agreed, standing up at her desk she pictured a button, and with a quick snap of her wrist and a shouted "_Inanimatus Conjurus._" The button appeared, lasted about 3 seconds, and then vanished. She placed a mask of disappointment on her face before turning to her professor.

"Full marks Miss Weasley. Your objects will last longer with practice. For now, class, we will only be studying the theory behind this spell. Miss Weasley, you are exempt, everyone else I want four feet of parchment on the _Inanimatus Conjurus_ spell by Monday. Class dismissed!"

Had everything ended there it would have been ok, but she was then mobbed by her fellow classmates who were both pleased with her earning points, but rather demanding as to where she had learned the spell. She used Hermione as an excuse, but it was plain to see some of her friends were jealous and let her know about it. Between that and Harry's antics walking her to class, they made her feel somewhat miserable.

Care of Magical creatures had gone alright, but double Defense had been a nightmare. Her family name had done nothing to help her as her stance on Snape's comments on Harry and the DA had cost her 40 points and earned her a detention for the next night. By the time dinner rolled around she made her way to a chair and collapsed on it, mentally and emotionally exhausted.

"Ginny? Are you okay?" Hermione asked, as Ginny had put her head down on her arms as if to take a nap at the table.

"Schafemagreezymastard," she mumbled to Hermione, who had gently prodded her.

Harry busied himself and set a plate of food in front of her along side a mug of coffee laced with sugar.

"Merlin! Thanks Harry." She said as she attacked the food. With dinner complete they returned to the common room. Hermione, who had known the two spent the summer training together, didn't say anything about Harry's serving Ginny, but both Neville and Ron had caught on it and looked like they wanted answers.

"Out with it Potter, is there something going on between you and my sister?" Demanded Ron as the quintet sat around one of the larger tables near the fireplace.

Harry opened his mouth to speak but Ginny beat him to it. "See here you prat, Harry took one look at me and prepared for me a lovely meal of food that didn't take much energy to eat and tasted wonderful, he then gave me the most perfectly prepared cup of coffee I've ever had. During this time you were too busy feeding your face to even notice that I felt horrible. So if you say one word to him to give him a hard time about being a perfect gentleman I'll hex you so bad you'll beg for me to bat-bogey you!"

Ron scoffed, "Relax Ginny, first off, I doubt seriously you'd manage anything against me, I've learned a lot from Moody these last few weeks. Secondly it's my business who you date, and if you date at all, I am your older brother."

"Oh really?"

"So tell us Ronniekins…"

"Does that mean…"

"As you're older brothers…"

"We have a right to say who…"

"Or who you don't date?" asked the twins, once again ending in unison.

"What!" he yelled outraged. "Of course you two prats don't have any say in that."

"Then why should you have any say in Ginny's case Ronald?" asked Hermione in a tone that rivaled their Head of house's.

"I agree with Hermione, Ron. If you want to treat Ginny that way and claim older brother status as your reason then why shouldn't you have to do the same?"

Ron looked around and realized he was outnumbered, way outnumbered so he tried to even the odds a bit. "Fred, George, don't you think it's your duty as responsible older brothers to protect our sister's virtue?"

"Ickle Ronniekins..."

"Obviously needs a quick reminder..."

"That if he's looking for a responsible older brother..."

"He'd be much better off seeking Charlie..."

"Or Bill..."

"Or Percy..."

"Not Percy you prat, we want responsible not reprehensible..."

"No, we're the reprehensible ones…"

"Than what's Percy?"

"The reprobate…"

"Okay forget Percy. Um, we may have got off track brother mine…"

"Quite so. The point is…"

"That if you're looking for a responsible older brother…"

"You'd best look elsewhere…"

"As for us…"

"We'll be hiding behind something that can block…"

"Our baby sister's wicked hexes."

And with that the two older Weasley brothers departed, leaving Ron to face a tired and very annoyed Ginny, an amused Hermione, a reluctant Harry and an observant Neville. With little in the way of support he said he was calling it a night and went up to his four poster.

With Ron having fled for safe haven in the comfort of his room, the remaining sixth years turned their attention to the lone fifth year in their midst. "So Ginny, how bad was it?"

"Bad. If we thought that Snape was horrid as the potions professor he's at least a hundred times worse as the Defense teacher. He spent most of the class badmouthing the DA and then showed us a spell once, expecting us to master the spell and use it to defend ourselves. If it wasn't for the fact that I knew every spell he went over from our DA lessons I would have been cursed at least four times. Several of our classmates were and Collin will probably spend the night in the infirmary. I don't see how anyone could have let that git teach!" she said with vehemence at the end, almost to the point of snarling.

Harry looked to Hermione and then at the stairs to the girls dorms. She got the idea and pulled Ginny to her feet. "Come on Weasley, things will look better in the morning, let's get you off to bed."

This left Harry alone with Neville and a couple seventh years in the common room. Harry gave a glare at the seventh years, who recalling his temper from last year both remembered someplace else they needed to be. Neville's eyes opened in surprise as he realized that he and Harry were the only two people left in the common room. Acting more on instinct drilled into him by Moody he quickly drew his wand from his pocket trying to seem as unobtrusive as possible.

Despite his best efforts it didn't go unnoticed. "Oh for goodness sakes Neville, put it away. If I was going to attack you for something it wouldn't be in our common room., Anyway, why would I attack you? Mad-eye's got you more paranoid than a long tailed kneazle in a room full of rocking chairs."

Neville sheepishly put his wand away. "Sorry Harry, Moody and all."

The boy who lived nodded his understanding. "Paranoid isn't always a bad thing, but it can be taken too far. So let's talk seriously." He waved his wand and set up a couple silencing charms in the area around them.

Seeing the spells Harry cast, Neville's surprise grew greater. "Cripes Harry and you called me paranoid?"

"Neville, I spent nearly my entire summer in hiding reading enough books on magic theory and spells to make me look like Hermione!" It technically wasn't a lie, he had just read the books with a few enhancements and finished them in hours instead of days. "So now that I can practice all the spells I read about I plan to do so. Which brings up the subject of the DA. Professor Dumbledore is going to expect _me_ to try and start it up again, whether I can find an official sponsor or not, so he's going to be watching me. I'd like for you and Ron to run it."

"What!" he shouted in surprise making Harry glad for the silencing charms he had placed around them.

"Shout a little louder, I don't think McGonagall heard you." Harry grinned as he spoke.

"Sorry," he said feeling a bit stupid. "I was just surprised."

"You don't say..."

"Anyway, why on earth would you want Ron and I to run the DA, that's your thing!"

"And after Dumbledore's announcement he, and the rest of the staff are going to be watching me like a hawk! I can do things to make them think I'm still running the DA while you actually meet with the students to teach them. You're already learning from Moody, so you should have plenty to teach."

"But… but…"

Harry sighed, "Just think about it Neville. Ginny already told us Snape either can't or won't teach us defense any better than he did potions. If the rest of the students don't learn they'll be simple pickings for the Death Eaters. Dumbledore will be watching me, expecting me to lead the DA, so I can keep him occupied so that the rest of the DA can learn."

"It seems like you've thought this through, but why not go to the Headmaster and ask him to find a sponsor for the club?"

Harry managed to not choke at the suggestion. "That would work except for a couple of things: the first being he shut it down in the first place. I don't care what line he fed us about the Board of Governors, if he wanted it to continue it would it some fashion. The other main reason is he's the one who made Snape the D.A.D.A. teacher in the first place. I'm not willing to trust my life or the lives of any other student to someone who makes a call like that."

He had tried to keep as much venom out of his voice as he could, but hadn't been entirely successful and Neville picked up on it.

"Harry what's going on with you and Dumbledore anyway? Up until last year if I hadn't known better I'd have thought he was your grandfather or something."

Harry stared at the fire before he replied. "There's a lot between us right now Nev. First off there's last year where he wouldn't talk to me or see me at all. Then there was the ministry. Did you know he locked me in his office and forced me to listen to him before he let me leave. I couldn't check on any of you guys, and I had just lost one of the last links I had to my parents. Then there was this summer, though I found out about this after the fact. Did you know that he wanted to leave it to Fudge and the ministry to decide my fate? If I hadn't been rescued when I was, I'd be a soulless dementor kissed zombie in Azkaban."

Neville blinked. He hadn't known about that and it was quite a startling revelation. "Wow Harry, I don't know what to say. Do you know why he's been treating you like this?"

"I don't and that's part of the worst part, but for now since he obviously doesn't trust me I'm returning the favor to him. So what do you say?"

"Well if Ron agrees then I don't see why not."

Harry smiled. "Well I'll go talk to him and we'll set something up."

The two grinned and then Neville pulled out an advance herbology book while Harry headed to the dorms.

…

"Are you alright Ginny?"

"Fine Hermione, I just want to crawl into bed and sleep for a week."

"Might I remind you that you have class in the morning?"

"I know - Arithmancy with Vector. It's one of my better subjects, so lecture on OWLs notwithstanding it should be an easier morning than today. Especially with Charms, and no double classes. Ugh, between double transfiguration with McGonagall and double defense my brain feels like mush."

"But what about…"

Ginny silenced her friend with a sharp look and then pulled out a dark gray wand and waved it around them creating an extremely strong privacy ward.

"Merlin Ginny what's that? And what was that spell?"

"This is a specialized spec-ops wand. While the other ones that Harry and I carry are all-purpose they are specialized for combat. This little beauty is designed for more covert work, it's magical output is much smaller than using a normal wand so it's harder to detect magic cast from it. Particularly important in Hogwarts where the walls have ears and the floors have magical discharge detection charms built into them. As for the spell it's one of the stronger privacy barriers I know we're now in a bubble of silence, nothing said in here can be heard out there, and from the outside it looks like a reflective mirror so people can't see what's going on inside of it."

Hermione's eyes shot way up. "That sounds awfully useful. What are its drawbacks?"

"It takes a lot of magic to power it - hence the wand switch. Had I used my normal wand I would have tripped several detection wards and charms and brought some severely unwanted attention on us. So what did you want to ask me anyway?"

…

"It's like this Ron, I want you and Neville to take over running the DA while I try to keep the staff focused in other areas."

His best mate gave him a look that wouldn't be out of place on a fish out of water. "Breathe Ron."

"Bloody hell mate! First you flirt with my sister and now this?"

"I was not flirting with your sister Ron."

"Oh come off it Harry, you served her food. You even knew the food she liked and how she liked her coffee. Come to think of it, when did Ginny even begin drinking coffee?"

During our training with McLain and Smythe, both of whom liked the horrid stuff, and she only drinks it for the caffeine to help her wake up in the mornings unless it's so sweet it might as well be butterbeer.' Harry had the answer to Ron's question, but knew that it would create way too many questions. Instead he decided to try and play it safe. "I know everyone's eating habits Ron, I've watched everyone eating in the Great Hall for the last five years now. As for the coffee I doubt she'd have touched it without the sugar and cream I put into it."

"What do you mean you know everyone's eating habits?" asked Ron, more curious than accusing.

Harry smirked and thought back to a conversation he had had less than a week before.

…

THE BURROW, SIX DAYS PRIOR

"Explain to me why I'm memorizing all these little tidbits again Ginny?"

She smacked his arm. "Because you git, these little tidbits as you refer to them, might save your arse from some difficult questions that can get posed at school."

He pointed to the section he was currently working on. He had already memorized the section on sleeping patterns and studying habits. "So what's so important about knowing everyone's eating habits?" He asked somewhat curious.

"Trust me Harry it doesn't seem important but there will be times when you are needing some sort of cover story and obscure miniscule facts such as what people like to eat become very important. So stop being so cheeky and memorize the bloody information." She glared at him and he nodded meekly not wanting to get on her bad side. He'd seen her bat-bogey hex cast wandlessly and was not interested in seeing it that close.

…

GRYFFINDOR TOWER, HOGWARTS, PRESENT DAY

"I mean, Ron, that I know what everyone prefers to eat depending on how their day went."

"You're Barmy mate, there's no way that…"

Harry sighed and held up his hand with five fingers open. "Let's talk potatoes for a moment Ron. You can get them five different ways, chips, jacketed, roasted, boiled and mashed. Six if you count crisps, but they aren't regular with meals"

Ron nodded for him to go on wanting to see how well Harry knew his stuff.

"You prefer your potatoes either chips or jacketed, the latter when you've had a rough day in classes. You liked mashed when we have food like roast beef or lamb chops. You rarely touch the boiled potatoes and only seem to eat roasted when you're eating black pudding."

"Blimey."

"Hermione prefers boiled or roasted. On days when we have exams she tends to eat roasted otherwise it's usually boiled, like you though she enjoys mashed with her roast beef. She occasionally will eat chips but almost never takes jacketed."

"Bugger."

"Neville will generally take what ever potato is closest to him, but his favorite seems to be roasted. Ginny likes chips when she's eating any kind of sandwich but like roasted or boiled when eating entrees. I've seen her eat jacketed on rare occasion and I've seen her once and only once eat mashed potatoes."

"Bloody hell, Harry!"

Harry smiled, he'd have to tell her this one. It would mean admitting she was once again right, but the look on Ron's face was something that had to be shared.

"I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions mate."

Harry waved him off. "I'm a bit curious, do you have something against me dating your sister? I thought she was going out with Dean."

"Just said that to get a rise out of me. Worked good though." He pushed his hand through his hair. "It's nothing against you mate it's just that I don't like her dating people." He shrugged, "Chuck it up to being an overprotective prat of a brother, though if she were to date you, Harry, I'd feel better about it than her dating anyone else."

Harry blinked in surprise. That wasn't something he had been expecting, and his surprise must have shown on his face.

Ron began to chuckle at this expression. "It's simple really, unlike those other gits she's dated I know that you would treat her honorably and with respect. The fact that all us Weasleys know you and wouldn't hesitate to hex you if you hurt her, and the fact that you already know that makes it even easier."

Harry still looked absolutely gobsmacked and Ron continued to chuckle. "Don't think for a second that means I'm giving you permission to date my little sister Potter." He said jabbing a finger in Harry's chest. The tone of his voice though was countered by the smirk on his face.

Harry decided a bit of payback was in order. "You know Ron, that smirk of yours reminds me a lot of Malfoys." He noted with grim satisfaction that Ron's complexion paled to enough to match the irritating Slytherin.

"And now you even look more like him…"

"Potter you prat! That's not funny!"

"Well your hair is definitely the wrong color…" he started to say before he broke down in hysterical laughter.

"Don't DO that!" yelled Ron throwing a pillow at him.

"That was a rather low blow comparing you to the ferret."

"Yes it was, now if you're done having one on me would you mind asking me what you really want?"

"Ron I was serious…"

"No bloody way!"

Harry sighed it was going to be a long night, and he still needed to meet with Professor McGonagall.

…

Ginny sighed, it had already been a long day and Hermione was starting to edge into her sleeping time.

"To answer the question you want to ask, why am I so tired when I should have an abundance of energy and be trained to go extremely long periods without sleep and what not as a result of my training?"

Hermione nodded, she hadn't seen Ginny's training, but she had read manuals about special operations and it seemed so odd her friend was so lethargic.

"Part of the reason is stress. Unlike being out in the field where I can use any spell I can, I have to constantly monitor what I can cast. Also I'm used to being inserted in hostile territories either under a cover, or with covert gear, neither of which I have or can use. The social stress is something else, especially after Potter's little display. " She frowned at the last part, she should have felt giddy at his attention, and part of her did. The other part of her had to deal with her classmates afterwards and was feeling less generous.

"Then there's the magical training. Before we left grand-mère gave me something to increase my magical power and yes, I know that's supposed to be impossible, but when you've lived over six hundred years than you can break all the accepted rules of magical abilities as well." She smirked at Hermione's non-plussed expression before continuing. "Being on our own, so to speak is a source of stress, but really it's the magical training that's draining me, plus there's the muscle stimulus spell I've been using for the last week."

"The WHAT!"

Ginny glared at her glad for the privacy bubble they were in. "Muscle stimulus spell, you cast it when going to sleep at it pulses your muscles until you cast finite on yourself. It's like working out for hours, the upside is you get the benefits of a full workout without the time constraints, the downside is it wears you down when you first start casting it. And you have to cast it every night for a solid two weeks for it to adjust to your body, if you miss single night you have to start over. Once you're body and magic have attuned to it you only have to cast it once a week. Since both Harry and I are finding it very hard to get time to do our full workouts we are doing the abbreviated morning set with you and then using the spell for the rest of our stuff. McLain taught that spell and the nutrient potions to us as well." She didn't add that nearly everything she was doing was at least a minor violation of several ministry laws.

Hermione looked like she was struggling with something before she looked up and asked, "Does it work?"

Ginny grinned at her friend and dissolved the privacy spell. "I'll let you know in two weeks."

…

You wanted to see me professor?"

"Oh Potter, it's good to see you. Please come in." McGonagall waved him into her study not far from Gryffindor tower. "I wanted to talk to you about a few things."

"Yes ma'am?" he asked as he took a seat at her gesture. This was his first time to McGonagall's private study. Normally he'd meet her in her office on the first floor. It was a bit cozier, a roaring fire in the fireplace and a teapot, 'Probably conjured' he thought, off to one side.

"The first and possibly most important item we need to discuss is Quidditch, now after a bit of convincing your Quidditch ban was released. And I thought you might wish to discuss with me the matter of Captain."

"Katie didn't want it?" he blurted out in surprise expecting the oldest returning member of the house team to be getting the position.

"No, Miss Bell with her course load and this being her NEWT year expressed a desire of me to pass the position to another player. As the longest playing member of the house team I thought you might wish your input into my decision." Before Harry could open his mouth to ask why she wasn't here McGonagall continued. "As I've already had this conversation with Miss Bell, I wanted to talk to you. She wished for you to have the option to take over as Quidditch captain."

"I'm honored at the offer Professor, but my aim is to keep the cup out of the dungeons and in the Tower, and I don't think I would be the person to train the team into doing that. I'm not well versed with Chaser formations, or bludger batting technique, nor do I know how to keep a quaffle out of the hoops. What I do well is seek, and occasional run interference. If we want to keep the cup we're going to need a captain who understands the entire nuances of the sport, and in all honesty that person is not me."

"Do you have a suggestion for that person then Potter?"

Harry thought about the Quidditch team and the remaining members. "Well, with the return of the twins, I think we'll have the position of beaters well covered so it's really just getting a captain who can work with Chasers and the Keeper. I'd suggest Ron, but…"

"Yes, with Mr. Weasley's acceptance to the junior Auror Corp I don't think he'd be able to focus his attention to both major organizations in his life. Actually from what I understand he'd be unable to attend every practice if Gryffindor kept it's normal schedule, not the best prospects for a Captain, one who would be unable to attend his own practices."

She saw Harry's expressions and continued on. "Oh don't give me that look Mr. Potter, you and I both know Mr. Weasley well enough to realize if not for the junior Auror Corp he'd be a sure pick, but I discussed this matter with him during the summer. Yes, that's right Katie talked to me at the end of the year, and I told him you had first option. He told me right out that if he was accepted to the program then Quidditch, as much as he loves it would have to be a secondary priority in his life. While I know he was disappointed with having to say it there was surprising steel behind his eyes when he made that statement. One that I have rarely seen in him, whatever it is that Moody is teaching him it's doing wonders for his self confidence and self-esteem." What she hadn't said was that same steel was something she recognized in his own eyes almost constantly.

Harry nodded and returned to the original topic, "And with Katie turning the position down that would only leave…" He realized that the only other returning member of the team would be Ginny. Normally it wouldn't be a problem he didn't have a problem following her lead, but remembered an earlier conversation where she had stated she loved to play, but would hate to be the team captain.

McGonagall frowned, "Perhaps a compromise would be in order Mr. Potter. A dual Captaincy? Miss Bell would be willing to accept that instead of having the full responsibility."

"You mean Katie and me?" asked Harry in surprise. He had thought she'd choose Ron as Co-Captain with Katie.

"No offense to Mr. Weasley as he is a brilliant keeper once he got his nerves in order, but there's something in you that drives people to be better than they are. Miss Bell can take care of the tactical aspect for the Chasers, but you would inspire the team. Perhaps next year if you are still unwilling to take the position a similar arrangement can be made with Mr. Weasley."

Harry thought about it. It would give Katie the chance to plot out plays something that he remembered she loved doing with Oliver Wood, their former captain. It would give him the ability too… "Professor may I ask you a question?"

"Go on Potter."

"I'd like to setup a complete reserve team of second and third year students, as older students graduate it leaves gaps in the team, if we had a reserve of younger years the older students could train their counterparts and we wouldn't run out of talented players."

"Well Potter as new co-captain that's your prerogative. Now we have some more serious matters to discuss."

He watched in surprise as she waved her wand and set a powerful privacy ward around them. Not as strong as the ones he and Ginny liked to use, but impressive none-the-less. "First of all, I thought you'd appreciate knowing that the Weasleys were not the only ones appalled about his decisions regarding your trial. Professor Sprout isn't a member of the Order and therefore not privy to the goings-on of Order meetings, but both Professor Flitwick and myself were most put-out and perturbed by his decision. I simply cannot fathom what he hoped to gain by allowing Cornelius to put you on trial."

Harry nodded. "I'm very touched by your support professor, it's nice knowing that not all the staff at Hogwarts are hostile to me."

"Yes speaking of hostile professors," she replied her tongued pressed firmly to her cheek, "I feel it prudent to warn you that Professor Snape will be looking to make an example of you during your first lesson tomorrow. Should you manage to adequately prove your own defense abilities surpass his expectations, I will personally see fit to ensure any points lost be evened out and increased for a splendid performance. Should your unofficial testing include visual evidence that might humiliate said Professor in a staff meeting, and can provide evidence from it; I would also ensure that my hearing was not working properly last night and I did not hear four Gryffindors plotting to wage a prank war."

Harry's surprised expression gave way to a sly smile and he gave his head of house a calculating look. "Why Professor McGonagall, one might accuse you of being in Slytherin after hearing a proposition like that."

Her response was everything he had anticipated and more. First she sputtered, then turned red, then fumed in place. "Mr. Potter," she replied archly, "If you must insult me, then in the future at least do so in a manner that does not hit, as you would say, below the belt."

Harry grinned and gave her an unabashed grin before replying. "Yes, mam. It was definitely undeserved. I'll save that for tomorrow in defense class."

"Mr. Potter, if I didn't know better I'd think you were acting like a Slytherin."

"I won't deny that I'm being sneaky Professor, but in your own words, no reason to hit below the belt. Think of it as a Gryffindor who's courageous enough to try a new tactic to beat an enemy."

It was his head of house's turn to smile. "Well put Mr. Potter, now off to bed with you."

"Now remember Harry, no matter what happens don't lose control of yourself and above all don't resort to using you-know-what."

It was lunch hour and Harry and Ginny were sitting alone in the kitchens, the room was laid out exactly like the Great Hall and was obviously used to store food before it was sent up by the house-elves.

Transfiguration had gone wonderfully that morning; his theory just under Hermione's and his practical work just above. They had started class as a quick review and then dove into conjuring. He had created a pin of the Quidditch cup with a lion standing guard over it. Harry and Hermione were the only two to manage conjuring an item and the detail on Harry's had pleased his head of house.

Care of Magical creatures was fantastic as Hagrid was covering snidgets and managed to get one from a local reserve for class purposes. Harry noted with satisfaction that he was the only member of the class who managed to follow it's every move.

It was the next class that he was dreading.

"I'm not sure if I can do this Ginny, here." Harry suddenly tapped his wrists and released the wand holster there, and then repeated the process with his ankles. He handed the four holsters to Ginny who took them in surprise. But then understood his reasoning, if he didn't have them on him, or near him he wouldn't have the temptation to use them. She opened up a pocket inside her cloak and slid them into it.

"All secure now. What about...?"

He shook his head. "No, I'll keep all three on so my power will seem like a standard slightly strong sixth year."

"Make sure you run your occlumancy shields at full strength. I wouldn't put it past the greasy git to use a duel to try and get into your head."

Harry nodded and flexed his fingers a few times. He looked over to Ginny. "You have a spare holster? I've been keeping my holly/phoenix feather in my pocket like I used to, plus I just didn't have anywhere else to put it." Along with his three special operations wands, he also acquired an experimental battle wand. It was part of his field testing agreement with the professor. Two inches shorter and with a thicker handle than a normal wand it was designed for rapid wrist movements and built to channel a lot more magical energy at a much more rapid pace. This particular battle wand had a duel core of phoenix feather and dragon heartstring, there were others that had more exotic cores, but he knew this one was compatible and didn't want to tempt fate. It was the kind of item that wasn't nearly as rare as his special operation wands, and while he'd love to field test it against Snape, it would raise a lot of questions he'd rather not answer.

Ginny pursed her lips and blew a blast of air up causing her hair to puff up before falling back down. She pulled her own wand out and tapped her forearm. "You know the drill Potter." She said in grim amusement.

He nodded and pricked his finger and let a single drop of blood fall on the holster. He then slid his wand into it and handed the entire package to Ginny. She gently wrapped it around his wrist and tapped it with her own wand. "I Ginevra Molly Weasley do hereby allow Harry James Potter use of this wand holster and all the abilities it hides. Harry is to be the sole possessor of this until he returns it, freely and not coerced to me." There was a blinding flash and then it seemed it had vanished.

Harry flexed his fingers and then gave a slight twitch and his wand was in his hands. He opened them and it was gone again. He smiled. "Thanks Gin you're a lifesaver."

"Don't mention it Potter, you know I won't. Dobby, Winky thank you for the privacy, we're done and just want to eat now."

The air around the two shimmered and suddenly they were surrounded by house-elves going about their business preparing and sending food for lunch. Dobby then popped up to them and led them to a small table set off to the side. "Dobby has spoken to all Hogwarts elves. They will respect Harry Potter's wishes and will not report on him or smallest Wheezy."

Ginny gave him a warm smile. "Thanks Dobby you really are the best."

Harry smiled as Dobby wrapped his arms around one of Ginny's legs and began ranting on the kindness and greatness of Harry Potter and the smallest Wheezy.

…

Harry finished lunch before Ginny left to join his classmates. They all arrived to the Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom early and as the door was locked waited. Ron muttered tips from Moody under his breath and Neville looked like he'd rather be in any other class at the moment. Their expressions reminded him that he hadn't asked about the new Potions Professor and made a note to do so at dinner, or after class.

"Well, well if it isn't Potty, Weasel, the mudblood and the squib."

"Neville tried to lunge for Malfoy but was held back by Ron. Hermione had learned to ignore him at this point, or at least pretend to, and Harry was trying not to laugh. He had spent so much of his summer being insulted by McLain during his "Spartan Training" that Malfoy's feeble attempt barely registered with him. He was, however more than willing to return the favor.

"Good afternoon Ferret. It's a good thing that your head-of-house is the new teacher for Defense. Perhaps you'll actually pass your tests instead of asking daddy to make sure you could remain in the class."

"How dare you!"

"Have I mentioned I happened to overhear your OWL score for the class?" He gave Malfoy a taste of his own smirk and it seemed to infuriate the blond boy. In point of fact he had overheard Malfoy talking to Snape about his grade for his DADA OWL. It was the lowest grade in the NEWT class and had Snape not been professor he probably wouldn't have been accepted. Oh he knew his curses, hexes and jinxes. It was the defense against them that he wasn't so good at.

Harry grinned. There were three types of people when it came to magical combat.

The first were witches and wizards who specialized in defense. His major caveat with the Hogwarts curriculum was that it produced this type of wizard, the DADA classes taught students how to identify and defend themselves against dark arts and creatures.

The second type was like Malfoy. He only knew how to attack, and while his attacks were impressive for a Hogwarts student, his defenses left much to be desired. It would have done Malfoy well to pay attention in class but he was so confident in his dueling ability that he obviously felt it beneath him. Harry wasn't sure but he had a feeling that a good amount of the death-eaters would fall into this group, especially the new recruits.

The final type included Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Neville. This was the type of witch or wizard that the Ministry wanted for their Auror programs. Harry referred to them as all-rounders. Skilled at both attack and defense the later honed by the D.A. the former honed by Moody in Neville and Ron's case, and by Smythe, McLain, Salibard, and the Flamels in Harry and Ginny's case. For Hermione hers was from reading more on curses and hexes then anyone else at Hogwarts, though Harry was now starting to give her a run for her money. A blend of defensive capabilities mixed with the ability to fight back, and more importantly the intelligence to know when to do one and when to do the other.

'Remember you're not Paladin right now you're Harry Potter. No showboating, no displays. Keep everything hidden and everything will be fine,' he reminded himself for the hundredth time since breakfast.

He glanced at his watch and noticed there was only a minute left until class started, he continued to ignore Malfoy who was now ranting about something and studied the door with his mage sight. He kept it short not wanting to start this class with a splitting headache. The door was unlocked, and not cursed in any way. To keep up appearances he waved his wand in a circle around the door.

"What do you think you're doing Potty? It's not like you know what you're doing or anythin…"

Harry ignored Malfoy and opened the door. He knew from experience that Snape had probably left the door like that to keep students from walking into the class, and then would use their absence as a reason to deduct house points. He gave a quick nod to Neville, Ron and Hermione before entering, his wand in his right hand held firm, but loose. He had three shields already planned to use as well as several hexes to use if he was attacked.

It turned out to be a good thing. As he walked through the door a line of three stinging spells cast in rapid succession were jetting towards him. He instantly conjured a block of granite that absorbed the spells as if they were nothing. He followed that up with a quick "_protego" _and waited.

Like a bat swooping down Severus Snape made his way to the front of the class not even making a note of what had just happened. Beside Harry, Ron, who had cast his own shield, fumed. "If it were any other teacher they would have awarded us points for that, lousy git." He muttered just loud enough for Harry to hear.

Harry grinned and made his way to a seat in the back of the classroom. Hermione joined him with Ron and Neville at the next table over. All four had the same reasons for their seating. You can't curse someone from behind if you can't get behind them to curse them.

"You are now entering NEWT Defense Against the Dark Arts. As all the former holders of this position were incompetent…" Harry silently fumed at the insinuation that Professor Lupin had been incompetent, but didn't rise to the bait Snape was offering. "…I know that I will have work cutout for me trying to teach such a group of dunderheads. Now, knowing the requirements and looking at this class I see many students who must have had good luck on their exam, or used their celebrity to earn the required grade. A few of you are exceptional Defense students and by the end of this year I fully expect half of you to be gone from this class. Now, quills out, wands away, let us begin with a quick review of curses and hexes…"

Class was drawing to a close when Snape, who had been walking between desks as he lectured, made his way back to the front of the classroom where a dueling platform had been erected. "Now class, I expect four feet on the differences between hexes and jinxes due Thursday. But for now perhaps a more… practical display would be prudent. Potter, to the front."

Harry glared at him and made his way to the front of the classroom. At the back Hermione looked at Ron and Neville and by unspoken agreement all silently drew their wands, ready to start hexing the Slytherins if they attacked Harry while he was with Snape.

"Now Potter… where is your wand, do you expect to attend my class without the proper preparation? Fifteen points from Gryff…"

"Begging your pardon _Professor_," he said with a sneer on his face at the word professor. "But I do have my wand and am ready to use it whenever you want to begin, assuming you called me up here for a duel and not to have a debate in the middle of the classroom."

"Ten points from Gryffindor for your cheek Potter, I am your professor and you will address me with the proper respect. Now forgive me but I see no wand so I'll take another fifty points for attempting to lie to a profess…"

Harry cut him off by simply flicking his wand and producing his wand into his hand with a bored expression on his face. "As I said Professor," with extra emphasis on the last word. "I have my wand right here with me and have had it the entire time."

"You're wearing a wand holster Potter, where and how did you get one, especially one that auto-draws your wand?"

"I wish I could tell you professor, but I don't know where it came from." It was the truth - he got it from Ginny and hadn't a clue where she had gotten the spare holster from. All he knew was that it worked, and worked very well.

"As your professor I order you to tell me where you got that item Potter."

"What item professor?" he flicked his sleeve down, and revealed an empty arm, the holster wasn't visible to anyone unless they were keyed in.

Harry had kept calm as Snape fumed for a bit. "Potter get up on the stage, you are going to be part of a demonstration!"

Harry smiled sweetly as he climbed up, this was going to be enjoyable. "Now we will hold a little duel, now you can demonstrate how great the little boy who lived really is."

Harry glared at him and asked, "What are the rules professor?"

"Anything goes, no unforgivable spells, first to disarm wins and if by some miracle you beat me you don't have to do the homework I assigned." He gave Harry a lazy smile that promised a great deal of pain.

Harry nodded back and hid his grin. He wouldn't let this chance be passed up.

They bowed Harry giving him a sweeping formal bow and added a bit of insult by not keeping his eye on his opponent during the bow. It was unlikely that Snape would realize that was on purpose, but he did it none-the-less. "Begin!"

Snape started by sending a leg-locker curse at Harry.

Harry side stepped the curse and sent four stinging hexes faster than Snape had done his three earlier.

Snape blocked them with a _protego_, but his face showed a little irritation as the spells ricocheted off. He responded by an _expelliarmus _and then a body bind. Harry shielded the disarming charm, dodged the body bind and sent five more stinging hexes at Snape.

He again blocked it with a _protego_ and the spells bounced off again. "This is ridiculous Potter, do you know any other type of offensive spells then a simple stinging hex? Use some real spells for Merlin's sake!" he shouted as he cast several surprisingly darker curses at Harry. None of them would have caused any permanent damage, but they would have raised some eyebrows if they had hit.

They didn't as Harry blocked half and dodged the others. "Well Professor as you haven't managed to teach us any offensive spells yet I think I'm doing rather well." He sent an _expelliarmus _back at the professor.

"Five points from Gryffindor for your disrespect Potter. I will teach you to respect your betters." Easily blocked and two hexes cast.

Both were blocked by a shield charm and Harry sent an _impedimenta _back. "I'm still waiting for that lesson professor." The class blinked, Harry was actually taunting the schools most hated and feared professor.

Snape was starting to lose control and his insult became more insulting. "Well it looks like the great Harry Potter can't even make a proper potion, so much for becoming an Auror - not that you would have survived long at that profession, as you are far too headstrong and stupid like your father." His words were accompanied by a variety of dark curses, one of which would cause serious damage to a person's vision if it had hit.

Fortunately it didn't. "I don't care what you say Professor, I never did believe you much anyway," responded Harry along with ten more stinging spells. He carefully noted what happened to them when Snape blocked them. "It seems to me that my father was a greater wizard than I gave him credit for if he managed to become an Auror instead of a mundane profession like becoming a potions master."

"He's mental!" exclaimed Ron to Neville who was watching with interest as the two duelers traded spells and minor insults. The truth is, while Harry used minor spells, Snape wasn't holding anything back in that department, especially after Harry's last barb. He was now using spells that were borderline legal while the only spells Harry was casting consisted of stinging hexes, _protego _shields and the occasional disarming charm.

"No I don't think so Ron, I think he's setting something up."

Hermione nodded, and noticed something about Harry's spells but didn't say anything yet.

Harry cast a few whispered spells that no one else would hear. The three unheard spells missed Snape by a large margin.

"Pathetic Potter, just like your father, you bribed someone or used your fame to get into this class because it's obvious that you don't deserve to be here. _Locomotor mortis,_" he said, again sending a leg locker at Harry.

Harry responded by ducking and then with a flurry of fifteen stinging spells, all of which were cast in a sharpened manner and to the Slytherins amusement Snape's shield reflected all of them. Their amusement held for only a second as the deflected spells all impacted on spots that Harry had cast his reflection spell on earlier. Five stinging hexes nailed Draco Malfoy who yelped as the stinging hexes not only stung but caused welts to appear. The other ten reflected back to Snape.

Normally he would have shielded himself again, but he was preoccupied. Harry hadn't been idle after casting his stinging hexes, far from it. Prior to casting another ten stinging hexes he had cast one spell that he knew went right through the protego shield and was counting on Snape being overconfident with his shield.

He was right. The greasy potions master turned defense professor let out a scream as he felt bats claw out of his nose and then began attacking him. With his attention focused elsewhere the ten stinging spells that had reflected off the walls hit him causing welts to appear all over his face which was looking rather worse for wear and the bat-bogeys were clawing at it. The other ten stinging hexes hit him all over from his legs to his arms.

"_Expelliarmus_" bellowed Harry, and Snape went flying off the stage his wand landing at Harry's feet. Snape landed on top of Malfoy and was looking dazed before coming around to try and defend himself from the still attacking bat-bogeys.

The class was speechless as Harry picked up Snape's wand and made his way to the fallen professor.

"Here you go Professor, I can't wait until we get to learn some real spells as you put it." He then whispered the counter spell that made the bat-bogeys dissolve into puddles of their raw material that quickly obeyed the law of gravity and ended up coating the now extra slimy Professor and his favorite student.

"A week of detention for your cheek Potter! Starting tomorrow night with Filch! And fifty points from Gryffindor!"

All the Gryffindors began to protest his unfair treatment even as the bell rang. "SILENCE! MY DECISION STANDS! Potter as you did manage to disarm me you don't have to turn in four feet on the differences between hexes and jinxes." Harry looked surprised; after his win he expected far worse from the one professor he knew hated him.

'This is too good to be true' he thought to himself before Snape opened his mouth again and proved that he was once again correct. 'I hate being right all the time' he told himself as he heard the rest of his sentence.

"Instead Potter you will spend the next class as a practice dummy to show the class how jinxes appear when properly and improperly cast. As Longbottom is in the class I will assume that at least one spell will be cast wrongly. Now get out of my face.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Characters from the Harry Potter Universe are not owned by me, they are property of J.K. Rowling her publishers and assorted legal team. Some of the other character who look familiar belong to Rorschach's Blot and the wonderful stories he's crafted.

A/N: Thanks to my awesome betas CassieP and KDtheRavenclaw, also thanks to everyone who's reviewed.

Chapter 3: Games Without Frontiers

Harry made a quick stop at the Gryffindor common room before making his way to the first floor. Once there he knocked on the door to his Head-of-house's office.

"Professor McGonagall?" he asked quietly when she called for him to enter.

"Mr. Potter. Is there something I can help you with?"

"Have you been to the Great Hall yet, Professor?"

"No Mr. Potter. Is there a reason why I should have?"

"No Professor, I just came from Defense class."

Realization dawned on the transfiguration professor, bringing a grimace to her already serious face. "How bad was it, Mr. Potter?"

"A weeks detention, 65 points, and I get to spend the next class as a test dummy."

"I see. Was it worth it, Mr. Potter?"

"Do you have a pensieve, Professor?" he asked, giving her a boyish grin.

She gave her (wouldn't-ever-admit-it-but-with-out-a-doubt-favorite) student a rare smile and gestured behind her. "I just happened to borrow the headmaster's pensieve because I'm trying to organize some of my thoughts for a transfiguration article I'm writing."

Harry grinned again and tapped his wand to his forehead, withdrawing a silvery memory. He dropped it in the pensieve and pulled out Colin Creevey's camera before joining his head of house in the memory.

…

Ten minutes later they emerged, both with smug and satisfied expressions on their faces. Harry waved to his head of house after hearing her plans and quickly made his way to the Great Hall.

"Bloody Hell, mate! Sixty-five points! A week's detention! But it was worth it; I don't think I've ever laughed that hard, and growing up with the twins that's something.

"And the glares he was giving you…"

"If looks could kill they probably would have…"

Harry laughed and nodded. The glares that Snape had given him were positively lethal.

"What are you going to do about…"

"It's taken care of Hermione."

"That was wicked mate!" said Neville with a feral grin.

Ginny joined the sixth years and spoke immediately. "I heard what happened from Fred who heard from Katie, who got it from Cho, who got it from Padma, who was told by Parvati that you managed to hit Snape with my Bat-Bogey hex in a duel to the death?"

"Well, not to the death, but we had a little demonstration." Said Harry, pointing to the single point in the Gryffindor glass.

"I bet it was worth it, after that class I'd give anything to have been able to see it."

"Anything Ginny?" asked Harry with a mischievous smile.

"Yes Potter, anything. Well, almost anything."

"Hypothetically, if I needed someone to help me pick out a couple robes on the Hogsmeade visit, would "anything" include volunteering to help?"

"Are you mental Harry? I'd do that without losing a bet."

"Well part of it would include being with me for the whole trip."

"Someone you're trying to avoid?" asked Neville with a knowing smirk.

Harry glared at him, Neville had caught Harry being ambushed by a very apologetic Cho Chang. "You already know the answer to that, Neville."

Ron and Ginny gave him a curious look while Hermione and Neville looked on the verge of tears as they both began laughing. Ginny gave him a questioning glare prompting an explanation. "Cho Chang caught me on our way to lunch after Care of Magical Creatures. She wanted to apologize for the way she acted at the end of the year last year and was trying to seduce me."

"Oh Harry!" gasped Hermione in between convulsions. "She wasn't that bad. She was just trying to get your attention."

"No thanks, But I'd be very grateful if you were to accompany me Miss Weasley."

"Harry it's almost four weeks to the Hogsmeade Visit."

"Don't care. It gives me an excuse to avoid her. Besides, you owe me Weasley." He said, handing a photo to Ginny.

It was an hour later before she finally finished laughing.

…

Wednesday passed in a blur. Harry had his first Arithmancy class, and even though he was taking the N.E.W.T. class with Hermione he found the lessons and problems given much simpler compared to what he had studied at the Flamels'. In fact, he performed well enough to earn Gryffindor 75 points, and had Professor Vector singing praises at having two Arithmancy prodigies in her class. He also had all the Ravenclaws glaring at Hermione and himself as he continually beat them to solving the problems being given.

Harry filed his notes away and started making plans for an E5 prank.

While Neville, Hermione and Ron met for Astronomy he was joined by Ginny and the Twins. Ginny gave him a pitying look. "He's really out for your blood tomorrow Harry. He was in a good mood just thinking about it."

"It'll be fine Ginny, I've got back-up. McGonagall is going to be sneaking in with us in case things get out of hand. I have an idea that'll be great for tomorrow, but it's gonna be a bit embarrassing. I need you two to transfigure and charm me into a geek tomorrow."

The twins traded an evil smirk.

"We've got no problem…"

"Messing with you Harry…"

"But can we inquire…"

"As to what's prompting this?"

"Have you seen the point standings today?" he asked, feeling a little dizzy from following them.

Ginny answered, sparing him the verbal badminton match. "Yeah we somehow managed to rack up more points than you lost yesterday."

Harry nodded. "That was Hermione and me in Arithmancy. Since most of the other students were Ravenclaws, and didn't get to earn any points the usual way I thought the E5 might want some pay-back."

"You've got it…"

"But do you want the details…"

"Or would you…"

"Rather it be…"

"A complete surprise?"

"The latter please. That way I can't give anything away." He yawned and looked to Ginny. "How are you doing?"

She gave him a tired smile. "Probably about the same as you. I know I'll be glad when these two weeks are up."

He nodded and then yawned again. "That's it, I'm turning in early."

"Good luck in class tomorrow Harry."

"Yes ickle Harrikins…"

"Because poor little Gin-Gin…"

"Will be beside herself…"

"If anything were to happen to her Hogsmeade da…"

Fred was cut off as several bat shapes clawed out of his nose and began attacking him. As soon as he had heard the spell being cast, George had tried to escape but he was hit before he got to cover. Harry and Ginny left the Common room to the sounds of the twin's horrified cries.

…

Minerva McGonagall was shaking with fury. She had known the Headmaster for well over fifty years, and while he had irritated and annoyed her on occasion, this was the first time she actually wanted to hex him.

…

"Headmaster, are you aware of what Severus is proposing to do to one of my students?" she asked practically hissing.

"I'm very aware of what he plans, Minerva. Do relax; he will not let it go too far, and it will be a good lesson for young Mr. Potter about respecting his betters."

"Albus, are you out of your mind? Severus hates the boy. He will use everything he can against a defenseless target. If you refuse to act you are giving him carte-blanche to abuse any student he wants! I'm drawing a line, and if Severus crosses it I will not be responsible for what happens to him. Even if you lack the integrity to intervene, I do not." With that, she turned and marched out of his office.

…

"Professor McGonagall, are you alright?" asked her (wouldn't-ever-admit-it-but-without-a-doubt-second-favorite) student, breaking her out of her recollections.

"Yes Miss Granger, I'm perfectly fine. Be a dear and fetch my cane from my office please, I'm afraid I'm still not a hundred percent well after the end of last year."

"Yes professor." Hermione looked around quickly before speaking again. "Have you heard about our next class?"

"Yes, Miss Granger, I'm aware of what has been planned. Hurry along child. I need that cane and you need to get to your Care of Magical Creatures class in time."

Minerva McGonagall smiled as the girl ran ahead to get the walking stick. She hadn't seen Mr. Potter at all yet, but she had heard he had been pranked at lunch. It was not something the lad needed on top of having to deal with Severus. She shook her head and accepted the walking stick from Hermione, and then sent her on the way. McGonagall had given her seventh years the day off, knowing that protecting one of her own was more important than the lesson she had planned. Making her way to the kitchens, she had preparations to make.

…

Harry had appeared still dressed like a complete geek for his first class down at Hagrid's hut.

"How was potions?" he asked Hermione, who gave him a funny look.

"Funny you should mention that Harry, what were you doing down there anyway?"

"I had to ask professor Slughorn for a couple favors." He grimaced. "I've got to go to his annual Christmas Slug-Club party but it will be worth it."

"What have you got up your sleeve Potter?"

"Nothing, honest!" he said, pulling his robe back to reveal nothing. He had returned Ginny's holster to her the night before, having procured a new one from the twins.

Talk between the two stopped and they both paled as Neville joined them, his face already as white as a sheet.

"Now look at these lovelies!" cooed Hagrid waving for the class to come closer. "You'll never find a specimen with sharper teeth than these little beauties."

Harry reluctantly made his way forward and hoped that the batch of Felix Felicis that he had gotten from Professor Slughorn worked right.

…

The liquid luck had indeed performed as it should, and Harry made it out of both Care of Magical Creatures and his following Defense class in one piece. Somehow Professor Snape had managed to take ill that day and Professor McGonagall filled in for him. After completing Snape's original lesson, they moved on to advanced defenses against Dark creatures. The twins would later admit to being behind Snape's illness. Since he could no longer use legilimency on them, they managed to booby trap his lunch with several sickness inducing potions. He was actually out for the rest of the week, and Hogwarts as a whole was very pleased with the result. McGonagall smiled apparently what she added to Snapes food had an increased adverse effect on the greasy git.

…

The air had turned crisp as September came to a close and October entered with a chill in the air. The cold was balanced with the sun shining brightly on the Quidditch pitch, as the Gryffindor Lions had begun their new season, training for their first match, now less than a month away.

The team members were in high spirits, not only was the (arguably) best seeker in the school's history back playing, but also returning were two of the best beaters that Hogwarts had seen in many years. Yes, it looked to be a very good year for Quidditch.

Ginny smiled as she kicked into the air on her modified Silver Arrow. The comfortable broom with the swept back ash handle that gave it a look similar to the Firebolt performed much more like a new Nimbus-series broom than its historical cousins. She looked over at her Captains and saw them joking with each other as practice began.

They ended up scrimmaging with the reserve team. It was a brilliant idea to have a full playable team of reserves, as they all practiced together, learning the same plays and randomly switching out for the starting players. "If anything were to happen to a starting player the reserves would have to be able to integrate with the rest of the team without a problem," said Harry by way of explanation, as he put all six of the chasers through the ringer.

As practice came to a close, there was a disturbance in the stands that quickly brought the attention of the team.

"Well, well, I had heard that the brooms Gryffindor used were pathetic but I'd have never believed that they could get this bad. Why if I hadn't... Is that a Silver Arrow Weasley?" Malfoy barked out a laugh along with the rest of his lackeys on the Slytherin team who had accompanied him.

"I never knew you were hurting that bad for players Potty, what, couldn't get some with real brooms? Are they charging rent for school brooms now Weaslette? Is that why you can't use one of those?"

Ginny glared, but it was Harry who responded.

"Why if it isn't the ferret. How are you doing ferret?"

Malfoy bristled at Harry's easy-going tone. "Best watch yourself scarhead, we're going to put your chances for the cup in the grave, right next to your godfather this year."

He was trying to get a rise out of Harry and a year before he would have been successful. This year was going to be different, and Harry wasn't going to allow himself to get baited. He was, however more than happy to return the taunt. He gave Malfoy a look of disdain that wouldn't have been out of place on the blond boy's face and wrinkled his nose. "Really ferret, if you're going to taunt us about Quidditch you need to do one of two things. Either find some good players to play for your team or get some better brooms, because it's obvious that those Nimbus 2001s your team is flying are not making up for their lack of skill."

Malfoy bristled and sputtered and began to reach for his wand, when he realized that between the starting team and the reserves he was outnumbered two to one. Having no other recourse he tried insults again. "I don't see where your team has room to talk scarhead, especially looking at that Silver Arrow the Weaselette is flying."

"Ginny could out-fly you any day of the week, Malfoy."

"You're all talk Potter, the Silver Arrow isn't built to go much faster than 80, you might as well just hand us the trophy. There's only one good broom on your team Potter and that's yours."

"Are you willing to put your galleons where your mouth is, Malfoy?" asked Harry, giving the Slytherin a lazy grin.

"What are you on about Potter? You've got the Weasels on your team, you should be talking Sickles... no wait make that knuts!" he added, laughing with the rest of his team. Neville wrapped an arm around Ron to keep the red head from jumping and starting a fight. The twins were held back by a glare from their little sister who was fingering her wand.

"It's simple ferret, I'll put my Firebolt against your Nimbus in a bet for Ginny to out fly you on her broom. She wins than you donate your broom to the... Hufflepuff team. You win and I'll give up my Firebolt."

Everyone on the house team gasped in surprise. Malfoy laughed out loud. "You're obviously more insane than the papers made out Potter, I think I'll enjoy flying my new Firebolt."

Harry only smiled back and said, "While we're at it, I'll bet fifty galleons that the Hufflepuff seeker beats you to the snitch on the very broom you're now holding."

"You've got a bet Potter."

"Shall we make it binding so there'll be no backing out on either side?"

They did, and as the details were being worked out word spread like wildfire. Hannah Abbot, the new seeker for Hufflepuff, was joined in the stands by the rest of the Hufflepuff team. Cho Chang found out what was going on and the Ravenclaw team joined them. House rivalries were put aside as Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor all cheered for the Seeker and Chaser they were behind.

"Okay Scarhead, you're the one who's gonna lose out, what's the course to race?"

Harry smiled. "The course is simple, complete three laps around the pitch, then slalom twice around the goals on the far side, return to this side of the pitch, go through the center goal post, then the first to catch the snitch wins."

"Ready?" Both Ginny and Malfoy mounted their brooms, Malfoy suddenly looking a little pale.

"Set!" Ginny gave Harry a broad grin and then turned and smirked at Malfoy.

"GO!" Ginny pushed off hard and began racing around the pitch. Malfoy quickly edged ahead during the laps with the superior speed of his Nimbus. As they approached the goal posts, having completed their laps, his edge vanished as he slowed down. Ginny flew by him, prompting a shout.

"Are you mental Weaselette? You're going to kill yourself!"

He was ignored, and from the end of the pitch you could just see a blur of red as she dove in and out between the goals. Malfoy emerged a couple seconds behind and pushed his broom as fast as it could go on the straightaway. Again slowing at the end as he approached the center hoop.

Ginny did no such deceleration, and if anything pushed her broom to go faster. As she emerged from the passing through the goal she began searching for the snitch. She saw a flicker of gold across the pitch and burst after it.

Behind her Malfoy was beginning to catch up until the snitch decided to shoot off in another direction. Ginny's Silver Arrow Special turned to intercept it, but before she could grab it Malfoy rammed into her at full throttle.

She managed not to scream or fall off, but in that instant that her attention wavered the snitch had once again changed direction.

This time it was in Malfoy's favor as it was approaching him, but the fiery red-head would not be deterred. Spurred on in anger by his blatant cheating she tucked her broom in tight and dove for the snitch.

As if realizing it's own predicament the snitch turned again and this time the two flyers were evenly set after it. As it looped through the smallest goal post it smacked right into the waiting hand of Ginny Weasley, who had flown into the hoop right after it. Malfoy had tried to go around.

She smiled as she held the snitch high above her head, the cheering from just the three house teams louder than the whole school during a match.

As she handed Harry the snitch she gave Malfoy a smug glance. "Well Malfoy it's your turn."

The pair watched in smug satisfaction as Malfoy reluctantly walked to where Hannah Abbott was waiting and practically shoved his broom into her hands. As he walked away muttering curses under his breath, the other three house teams broke into applause. Harry couldn't resist one more barb. "I'm looking forward to May, ferret!" As those assembled watched the Slytherins slither off the field they looked at each other and agreed. It was indeed a good year for Quidditch.

That Saturday found Harry with Ginny leisurely window shopping through Hogsmeade. Hermione joined them from time to time as did Ron and Neville, but they went at their own pace, sometimes leaving before their friends, sometimes after. The pair grinned at each other, no less than ten other girls had asked him to Hogsmeade including Cho Chang, twice. Every time he had told them he had agreed to accompany the youngest Weasley who was helping him get some shopping done.

After leaving Hermione at the book section in Dervish & Banges they went ahead to shop in Gladrags, or rather Ginny shopped in Gladrags while Harry chatted with Neville who had caught up with them. After a few minutes, Ginny marched up to Harry with several garments and gave him a look. "Did you want my help or not Potter?"

"Of course I did…"

"Then go and try these on."

Neville snickered and Ginny rounded on him, "Oh Longbottom there's this wonderful set of dress robes that would match Hermione's eyes perfectly.

Neville paled, stammered, and walked out of the shop under Ginny's smirk. "That wasn't very nice," said Harry as he emerged wearing the black robes with green highlights.

Ginny shrugged. "It'll get worse if he asks her out so I'm just trying to break him into it. That looks perfect on you. Buy it." She left out the words, 'Or else' but it was clear on her tone and Harry nodded walked back into the changing room and then came out and made their purchase.

They were looking at some of the supplies in the potions shop when Ginny tugged the sleeve of Harry's robe. "Can we go see the Shrieking Shack?"

Harry blinked in surprise; of everything he had expected that request wasn't one of them. "Haven't you been there before, Ginny?"

"Yeah, a couple different times." She replied, putting a bit of extra stress on certain words. "The first time was with a friend, but the second was in a large group. That time wasn't as fun and we almost got into a fight.

Harry got the message and began to process the information she had just given him with the formations of a plan stirring in his mind. "Tell you what, let's go after we meet everyone at the Three Broomsticks. That way we won't make everyone wait for us and we can watch some of the sunset. We'll have to hurry though to get back to the castle before sundown."

Ginny nodded and the two made their way to Zonko's, where the store proprietor was shooting the twins a noticeably unfriendly glare. Harry continued on while Ginny walked over to them and said with no preamble. "Follow me."

Without any hesitation they put down the products they were studying and did as she asked, not willing to risk getting on her bad side.

Harry continued on to Honeydukes, where he found Hermione comparing a couple different flavors of sugar quills. He came up behind her and quietly whispered, "Three Broomsticks. Now." He then made his way out, stopping to pay for a box of chocolate frogs he had picked up by way of explanation. Hermione followed suit, paying for both packs of quills, and met up with everyone at a table towards the back of the place.

As she shot him a look that asked for an explanation he turned to George. "I need some poly-pops."

"What flavor?" he asked, suddenly serious.

"Fred will need Harry Cherry, Ginny will need Book-Worm Blueberry, I'll need Twin Toffee and Hermione will need Gin-Gin Ginger."

"I still can't believe you named it that." Snapped Ginny to the twins as they pulled out the confections. Fred held one while George handed out the others.

"What is this?" she asked as Fred excused himself from the table. Ginny did the same saying she had to use the loo.

"Ginny!" gasped Hermione, forgetting how her friend had a tomboyish streak after growing up with six brothers.Harry quickly threw up a privacy ward before explaining. "Modified Polyjuice candies; for the time you suck on them you turn into the person, unlike real poly-juice it doesn't taste absolutely horrid. Hence the flavors, I hate to admit it but the twins are true geniuses when it comes to potions. Even on par with H.G. who helped them develop these."

Hermione looked like she wanted to say more but Harry indicated her to go to the rest-room. "Remember," he whispered, "It'll only last while it's in your mouth so if you finish it, or spit it out the transformation will end."

She nodded and walked into the bathroom. A minute passed and She returned to the table followed by Ginny. Harry took the opportunity to use the men's facilities. As soon as he entered the door he popped the twin toffee into his mouth and then walked back out, winking at Fred, who waited another 30 seconds before popping his own poly-pop and joining himself at the table.

The group finished their drinks and then made their way towards the exit. Harry and Ginny, heading towards the Shrieking Shack, waved goodbye to the others who turned and headed back to the castle.

…

The red-headed girl and green eyed boy were standing at the Shrieking Shack watching the sunset when there was a rustle from behind them. They whirled around to find a group of Death Eaters approaching them, wands drawn.

"Potter, our lord would like to have a word with you. If you come quietly we'll even let your friend go without torturing her, much." He added with an evil sounding laugh.

It was his turn to spin around as he heard a hand clap behind his group.

"Well, well, is this a private party or can anyone play?" Asked a young man with vivid scars across his face and the parts of his arms that were visible.

One of the newer recruits attempted to handle the situation. "Get lost punk, our business is with these two kids."

"And what two kids might you be talking about?" asked a shapely woman who looked to be the same age as the man who had first drawn their attention.

"What did you do with them!" demanded the first Death Eater, obviously the leader of this little expedition.

"I'd be much more concerned about what we're going to do with you." Replied the young man, who had made his way around them and was walking up to the young lady. "I wasn't expecting to see you here Miss Scarlet."

"You know me, I like to be unpredictable Mr. Black."

"Our friends seem somewhat aggravated."

"Ugly as well."

"Let's not forget stupid."

"I bet that their expressions right now would be priceless if we could see them. Too bad they have to hide behind those masks."

"Ridiculous masks too. I wonder if their half-blood idiotic master has any fashion sense."

"Judging by what he parades his goons in, I doubt it."

The calm mannered trivial banter finally became more than one of the newer recruits could take.

"_Avada_…"

He never finished the spell. In a flash Mr. Black had drawn a wand and blew the man away with a strong bludgeoning hex.

"We'll be nice and give you one chance to surrender before you end up like your friend there," said Miss Scarlet with a cheerful smile.

The Death Eaters traded a look with each other before replying. "Listen you wench, we outnumber you nine to two, why would we…"

There was a huge flash of light and when they were able to see clearly again, three more of their number were down on the ground and Mr. Black had a second wand while Miss Scarlet had apparently drawn her own wand.

"Six to two now little robe kisser, one last chance before we get serious."

Two of the Death Eaters tried to escape and found to their horror that they could neither Apparate or activate their portkeys. One cursed and the leader who realized what had happened decided that battle was the only way they'd leave this encounter. He knew they still had numbers on their side, but that display the pair had put on made him a little nervous.

The two groups stared at each other, both daring the other to make the first move. Actually the Death Eaters were now a little intimidated to make the first move, while Black and Scarlet who realized this were too amused to let them off the hook.

"_Crucio_!" yelled the leader who had finally had enough.

Mr. Black waved his wand and a conjured block of marble that absorbed the torture curse, shattering in the process.

"_Pulsum Valde_!" the pieces of marble became very effective shrapnel and two more Death eaters collapsed. The one who had born the brunt of the pieces would never rise again.

"_Carpe Retractum Celer_!" snapped Miss Scarlett at the same time. One of the Death Eaters was grabbed and thrown towards them at a rate of speed almost as fast as the _Pulsum_ _Valde_ spell. The only problem was the tree he had been using for cover. It would take the Aurors a full hour to remove him from where he was imbedded.

The two then split up to avoid the familiar green curse hurtling towards them.

"_Volo Verbera_!" Miss Scarlet had wanted to test that new spell out in the field for a while and was pleased by the results. The effects were like ten small-localized reductors hitting the Death Eater all over.

"Desino," Mr. Black smiled as the powerful stunner nailed the leader. He had been dodging and blocking spells, but this one was worth taking alive. His thoughts were interrupted from the right side.

"_Diffindo_." The spell came in rapidly and his shield blocked the spell, but when it deflected it nailed a tree limb that collapsed onto him, prompting a grunt of pain as he lost his balance and fell to the ground.

The last Death Eater grinned as he approached him and then clutched his chest before collapsing to the ground.

The area somewhat secure, Mr. Black tossed a small bottle on the ground before he felt a familiar set of arms wrap around him and then vanished. A split second later ten surprised members of the Order of the Phoenix arrived to fight the Death Eaters who were all now either unconscious or dead.

Mr. Black and Miss Scarlet appeared a second later in a very comfortable and well furnished flat before they each tapped a spot on their chest and transformed back.

…

TEN MINUTES BEFORE

As soon as they knew they weren't being watched, Fred grabbed Hermione's hand and led her to the wall of the candy shop. He tapped it and then slid a piece of paper in front of her. "The Hogsmeade safehouse is located adjacent to Honeydukes."

As soon as she read the words the wall vanished, revealing the door to a small flat.

Walking in, they both spat out the poly-pops and transformed back into Harry and Ginny. "We've only got a couple minutes to get ready." He said as Ginny took a moment to take in her surroundings.

"Harry this is brilliant. Explain to me why we're staying in Hogwarts?"

"Because there's no way for us to commute without getting caught eventually? Now about what we're going to do..."

"Don't try and stop me Paladin, I may not have been tac-ops but you'll need someone to watch your back."

"Fine, but you need a complete cover, use the pendant."

She nodded and gasped as he turned into Mr. Black. "You look like an older version of you, but crossed with Moody, and perhaps Clark." She said, "If I didn't know it was you I wouldn't be able to guess, while at the same time there's enough resemblance to make me think I've seen you somewhere before. And the scars make it perfect." She added, knowing that anyone who saw him would find their attention drawn to his scars and not necessarily to his other facial features, allowing him to be able to modify the disguise with little trouble.

"Now for you Miss Weasley." He said with a smile that turned into a gaping stare as Ginny transformed.

Though she was athletic, she gave herself some extra voluptuous curves that wouldn't seem out of place on a socialite. She modified the color of her hair slightly, though it was normally a darker red, it was now crimson, almost blood like in color.

He handed her a portkey. "If anything happens use this to get back here, activation is sweets."

"It's a bloody good thing you gave me that port-key Paladin." Snapped Ginny as she ran a couple diagnostic spells over him.

"I'm fine Firebrand, but we're in the safe house, I think we can use our names."

She blushed as she realized that under the stress she had reverted back to the procedures she had been trained with.

"While the gallant part of me wants to tell you I had everything in hand and under control." He took a deep breath. "Thanks for the save Gin. What'd you use on the last one?"

"One of the battle magic spells Salibard drilled into us."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "You used the triple heart-attack curse?"

She blushed again and shrugged. "You were in danger, I've got to protect my partner don't I?"

Harry blinked and roughly rubbed his eyes, which suddenly felt very moist. "Thanks Ginny, I've never had someone there to watch my back like that before except Sirius."

She blinked in surprise. "And just what does that mean Potter, I know several people who've gone into danger with you."

Harry nodded. "Well at the Dursleys I was always fending for my self. My Aunt and Uncle couldn't care less if I lived and my cousin enjoyed making my life hell. Then in first year, by the time I got to Quirell I was alone. Second year Ron and I got separated by the cave in." He did not have to elaborate what followed and continued.

"Third year, Hermione was holding Buckbeak when I fought off the dementors. Fourth year Cedric was murdered on arrival so I faced Tom and company alone. Last year I chased after LeStrange and faced her and Voldemort alone until Dumbledore finally showed up. Almost every time I've been in a bad situation I've faced it without anyone's help. I know I could have done some wandless magic this time but you got him before I had to. This was the first time that I've had someone willing and able to watch my back."

She smiled and gave him a friendly hug. "Well get used to it Potter, we're partners and I don't plan on changing that any time soon."

He smiled back at her as she punched his shoulder. "Now that's more like it. Now we'd better get back to the castle before someone notices we've been missing."

Harry nodded to her and snagged her arm as she started to walk towards the door. "Hang on Ginny, I've got a better way out." He gave her a cheeky grin and then walked to the wall, pressing it in several differnt spots similar to the entrance into Diagon Alley.

The wall opened up revealing a set of steps. She followed him down then into a tunnel. "Where are we?"

"A new secret passage into Hogwarts."

"A what!?" she hissed.

"Well, it's technically not new, the Twins and the map showed all of them, but several of them were caved in. This is one of those. Filch knows about it I think, but he also knows it's caved in."

"So if it's caved in, just how are we going to get through it?"

He smiled and didn't say a word, just continued walking. Finally they reached the site of the cave-in. Harry walked up to the rock and began hissing. Ginny backed away from him before she realized that he was issuing some kind of password in Parsel-tongue.

As he finished speaking, or rather hissing, the rocks began to shift until an arch was created. "Shall we Miss Weasley?"

She hooked her arm in his and the pair walked through the arch that closed behind them. "Harry?"

"Yes Ginny?"

"You're one of only two parselmouths I know of, so what prevents the other from using your secret entrance?"

"Three things, first the only way to the entrance is through our safe-house and that's under the fidelius. Second is the only way to access the stairs is to press the right spots which he won't know. And finally there's no way Tom would ever say the right password."

"And just what is this super password of yours?" she asked with a playful smile. "By the way you startled the hell out of me with your parseltongue. I know it's not evil, but it brought back some bad memories of my first year."

"Sorry Ginny, I didn't even think about that. I did set up another way for you to use it, it's a sealed rune; I'll explain it later. As for the password I won't go in exact specifics, but the general gist is, _I, Harry Potter, child raised by abusive muggles, had the most wonderful muggleborn mother in the world. I denounce those who believe in blood purity and swear that I will fight evil and defend those unable to defend themselves_." He grinned at her. "Ok, so I ended up with specifics. The only downside was setting it up and I actually have Snape and Filch to thank for that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He smiled. "That week of detention that Snape gave me for my little performance with Filch became the perfect opportunity to get away with some serious mischief. I arranged with the Twins to keep messing up the trophy room, then while I cleaned I spent the time casting wandless wards around the area. We come out by the trophy room."

"Back up a bit, you did all of this wandlessly? I can believe that, but how did you do it during your detention?"

"I didn't do all of it during detention, just the initial warding. I spent detention layering _confundus_ and notice me not charms."

"So when and how did you do the rest?"

"Well the archway is actually a tricky spell that I had the Professor create, though from what I understand he had some help from American Custom Magic Engineering Incorporated, or as he called it A.C.M.E. Inc. Apparently it was a group of American witches with a strange sense of humor and an incredible talent with charms." He caught her glare and decided to not add all the details the professor gave him. "Anyway the point is they modified the fidelius spell to hide an object unless a password was stated and then only reveal itself until the person had passed beyond the point."

"And with you setting the password in parseltongue, you could yell it out in the middle of the great hall during lunch and no one would ever understand what you said."

"Yes the folks at A.C.M.E. were initially worried about security, but the Professor told them it was just a secondary precaution and there would be no one in hearing range of the spell anyway. So they're thinking we're paranoid..."

"...But are we paranoid enough?" She finished the age-old saying of intelligence agencies everywhere.

"The best part of it all is that we've absorbed their company."

"We?"

Harry smacked his forehead. "We need to chat for a bit I've been doing some behind the scenes work and I guess you and I need to get together about it. Maybe the twins too. I'm not sure if Hermione needs to know about this or not."

"We should include her just so she's in the know, that way no one is missing the information."

Harry nodded and the two arrived at a hallway. He held up his hand and they stopped and peeked around the corner to make sure it was clear. He nodded and the two of them walked out, Ginny looked back and gasped. "There's nothing but wall." She placed her hand on it and felt the solid brick. "How does that work?" she asked as she pulled out her special ops wand and created a privacy ward around them.

"Press the third brick from the left and say 'Marauders' and the wards drop. Originally it moved the bricks and made a passage but I prefer this way. You can use this passage to get out without the parsel-password but you need it to get in until I can key you into the ward."

"Let's finish this later." She said, dispelling the ward. "Too many people could come around the corner."

"Indeed Miss Weasley. Might I inquire as to what you and Mr. Potter are doing in this corridor at this time?"

"Harry and I got back early from Hogsmeade and he was showing me some of the trophies in the trophy room. He's very knowledgeable on them after having to clean them every night for a week."

Harry looked at her in surprise. He knew that she had little respect for the former potions master, but she had always kept it under control before. Her snippy remark was likely too...

"Ten points from Gryffindor for your disrespect Miss Weasley."

"Yes Professor Snape, what brings you to this trophy room? Are you looking at the Gryffindor Quidditch trophy?"

"Twenty points from Gryffindor! Now get out of my sight!" he screamed, and the two beat a hasty retreat towards the Gryffindor common room.

"Merlin Ginny! That was hilarious! I'm surprise he didn't hex you, or give you a detention."

She gave him a knowing smile. "I was hoping for the former. We're both quick with shields, and I could have brought him up before the board of governors if he had… speaking of bringing up on charges, how goes that plan?"

Harry grinned and pulled a clipping from the Daily prophet out of his pocket. Ginny read it out loud as he motioned for Hermione and the twins to join them. "_Minister Cornelius Fudge, already on unstable ground for his treatment of the Boy Who Lived, will go before the Wizengamot in a vote of no confidence this Tuesday. To further his difficulties he is currently facing several charges, many of them from the boy-hero. He's also facing charges from several other students for his appointment of Dolores Umbridge and her use of a blood quill. Should he escape the vote of no-confidence it appears to be certain he will still lose his post of Minister of Magic unless all the other charges aimed at him are dismissed. An unlikely event considering who is pressing them and what is on the line…_"

"Wow! Rita wrote that?" asked Hermione as she, Ron, Neville and the twins walked over to join them.

"Yeah, she wasn't this good to me when you were threatening her, I wonder what happened."

"Simple really…"

"Ms. Skeeter wants her stories to sell…"

"In the past it meant harassing you…"

"But with Fudge's precarious position…"

"And his incredible incompetence…"

"Hating the git is the new rage…"

"And by jumping on the bandwagon…"

"Rita ensures to make numerous sales…"

All five of them stared at the twins in disbelief.

"What?"

"Just because we act careless all the time…"

"Doesn't mean that we don't pay attention…"

"It's because we want people to underestimate us…"

"And besides…"

"We love anything that annoys Percy, and abusing Fudge helps that!"

The group chuckled and then Neville and Ron excused themselves. They were both meeting Moody for their weekly session the next day and wanted to do so well rested and mentally alert.

As the others watched them go Harry turned to his team. "The New Marauders are pranking the E5, who I think are in Ravenclaw, let's get to the Room of Requirement and start planning.

Ten minutes later they were all settled in the Room of Requirement and Harry and Ginny were busy layering privacy and protection wards. The twins were staring at them in shock. They had previously thought themselves as masters of privacy spells, having used them to get away with their pranks for so long. Hermione was vibrating on a couch wanting to study and learn the spells that had been used.

Harry turned to Ginny, who had tapped the Marauders Map with her wand. She had come a long way from her first day of training, when Perenelle had first tossed them apples and had them transfigure them wandlessly. It wasn't until after she had said she would take the young Gryffindor as her apprentice that Ginny finally mastered the task. And while he was beyond her in that talent, it had helped her master wordless casting with her wand. Of course, activating the Marauders Map without swearing that you were up to no good was a certain way to earn the attention of those who knew how to work it.

She gave Harry a look that said simply later and he let it drop. A glare to the twins stopped them saying anything and Hermione merely assumed that the words had been for show.

"All clear, but Malfoy and his cronies are waiting for us to come down from the looks of it."

"I'll leave them to the twins this time. Listen I have a question and I want everyone's honest opinion. Should we pull Luna in on this?"

"Yes, at least for the prank war part. I'm not sure what she already knows about the department. Besides odds are she already knows."

Hermione frowned but held her tongue, the twins just shrugged and nodded. "Very good, Luna will be our contact point inside Ravenclaw and she'll help us plan E5 attacks. Now onto serious business. First off how did everyone find the poly-pops?"

"They're amazing. After the attack I got Fred and George to show me the theory behind them and I think we can enhance them."

Harry grinned, this was what he had been hoping since Hermione learned about them.

"Enhance them how?" asked Ginny, leaning back into her chair and crossing her legs.

"I think we can mix in certain ingredients at different time during the creation to achieve specific appearances. And their Canary Creams gave me an idea, but I don't want to say anything until I'm sure it will work."

All four of them pressed her for details but the bushy-haired girl remained tight-lipped and refused to say another word.

"Fine since the short super genius isn't speaking. Let's continue. I left our new calling card at the scene of the death eater attack. We had a minor incident, but luckily we were able to withdraw from the site before the order arrived. The only two people that I know of who can see through our illusion are Dumbledore and Moody."

"The Goblins can," added Ginny, remembering the letter her father had sent them not long after school had started.

"Yes but Griphook and Ragnok are on our side," reminded Harry, smiling as he remembered his dismayed expression that his plan had failed.

"Harry what did you just say?"

"Oh sorry Hermione I forgot to mention I've been in secure correspondence with Gringotts, and Ragnok is helping me set up some dummy accounts."

"Harry you realized you were talking to the president of Gringott's bank."

"Yeah, very nice guy. I wish more wizards would emulate the efficiency of the Goblin nation, we'd have a lot less problems."

"Harry you do realize that the Goblin political structure focuses on their banks right?"

"Well, I figured that Hermione, but no I didn't know; why?"

"Harry the Gringott's in London is their headquarters branch, the president of Gringotts in London is, for all intents and purposes the leader of the Goblin Nation. If you said that Ragnok is behind you it means all Goblins are."

"Oh… well… that's impressive. That explains why everything for Black Ink Inc. was set up so quickly. Speaking of which let me explain. Black Ink is a magical supply company that creates and sells magical objects. They recently acquired American Custom Magic Engineering Incorporated."

"Oh Harry! ACME Inc?" asked Hermione laughing while everyone else looked at the pair confused.

"Muggle thing," he explained. "They're also going to purchase Weasley Wizarding Wheezes and will hopefully turn a real profit within a year or two. In reality it's a fake identity for us to use when we travel and what not. At the end of the year all of us will be working for Black Inc. Fred and George through their joke shop. Hermione they are going to hire you for the summer as a research specialist. Ginny you'll be brought on for their human relations department and I'll be hired as a janitor."

"A Janitor?"

"Dumbledore's going to try and force me back to my Aunt and Uncle this summer, they will in turn try to find a way to make money off of me. I'll have someone approach them as a representative as long as they describe the job as unpleasant for me and profitable for them they'll be more than happy to let me do it."

"Why are you submitting to him?" asked Ginny, honestly curious and not just annoyed.

Harry shrugged. "Like you said, always plant your lies inside truth, it makes them easier to swallow. If he thinks I'm submitting to his wishes he'll be less likely to interfere with what I'm doing and therefore more likely to be caught unaware. Now back to task as employees of Black Inc. we'll be sent to different branch locations for work assignments, including but not limited to the Diagon Alley Branch, the Paris Branch, the Devon Branch, the New York Branch, the Hogsmeade Branch, the Sydney Branch and the Kyoto Branch."

"Merlin Harry!"

"That's…"

"Quite…"

"A list…"

"There, mate."

He grinned at them as he thought, '_wait to you see what's going on for Christmas_.'

"It's an international corporation; that was the only way to keep the management of Black Ink private. Think of it as a prank on the world, it's like a huge game without frontiers. But it's more serious than a game, and speaking of that let's go over the death eater attack and then call it a night." He had begun light-hearted but quickly grew serious. The After-action Debriefing was something that Smythe had trained Ginny and him to do after operations. They had learned the wizarding version from the Unspeakables, but what Smythe taught them to do was much more comprehensive. They broke the operation into segments and went over every part, noting what did and didn't work in this case as well as brainstorming for future operations.

The meeting went another two hours and then the five Gryffindors headed back to their common room. Two of them had smiles on their faces, knowing that another secret passage to Hogsmeade was now working again. One had a smile on her face with a new research project to dive into, and the last two had smiles on their faces because Black Ink was now open, and with bottles of Black Ink they would be declaring war on Voldemort and his Death Eaters.


	4. Chapter 4

Authors note: 08/07/07 My Plot beta Rubysquill had suggested a few changes to Chapter 5, (Okay so those few changes involved a major rewrite that's still ongoing but that's another story, or rather another chapter.) As a result of that change it required a bit (Ok a lot) of re-work on chapter 4, so here's the updated version. I did a fair amount of reworking this so I strongly suggest re-reading the chapter. Special thanks to my Beta's KdtheRavenclaw, Rubysquill and CassieP.

Disclaimer: Don't own it, just messing with the world.

CHAPTER 4: Just Another Day

Arthur Weasley carefully adjusted his dress robes for the eighth time. He was back at the ministry for his Weekly meeting, but he had been asked to dress for an important meeting.

He stepped into the familiar phone booth and quickly dialed absent-mindedly handing his wand over for testing before hurrying to the lift to go to the main courtroom on the tenth level.

"Oh good, with Arthur here all senior department heads are now in attendance for the hearing of Cornelius Fudge."

"Arthur were you able to get the papers we discussed?"

"Well it took some convincing but after the paperwork you signed and requested they finally were willing to diverge the information."

"Information? Weasley what are you on about?"

Arthur smiled at the head of the Aurors, Rufus has always been insufferable, and while he wouldn't admit it, he was enjoying taunting the man who now had to cover his former department's duties. "It's simple Rufus, we traced a large amount of galleons flowing every time there was a serious Death Eater trial and the Death Eater walked. After several attempts previously to subpoena the evidence from Gringotts, I finally set up a meeting with the Chairman and with some specifically prepared information from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement I was able to get the information without violating the Gringotts' privacy terms."

"And just how did you manage to get that Weasley? You can't have that much pull at Gringotts as your family doesn't have any galleons there."

Arthur glared at Macnair, thinking 'You just wait Death Eater, you'll get yours soon enough.'

Amelia handled the answer for him. "It's simple really we just prepared some documents on the three main suspects he had for taking bribes and presented them to Gringotts with a request that they press charges for endangering their establishment by accepting bribes for letting threats to the world go free. The one they agreed to press charges against is that one we suspected I might add."

…

"Harry did you see the headline in today's paper?"

"Neville? Slow down take a deep breath. Now what are you on about?"

"This!" he waved a copy of the daily prophet under Harry's nose, but it was snatched by Ginny who had been walking with him.

"This morning, on top of his current troubles, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge was accused of accepting bribes from questionable sources. This accusation comes only one day before his hearing for a no-confidence vote, and is almost certain to be the straw that broke the hippogriff's back. Ironically after his forced closure of the Office of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, the final piece of evidence came from none other than Arthur Weasley, now head of the Department of Goblin Affairs." Ginny broke down laughing as Harry grabbed the paper back and skimmed the rest of the article.

"This is fantastic. It looks like by Halloween we'll have a new Minster of Magic."

"Let's just hope the replacement isn't working for Voldemort," said Dumbledore as he came up from behind the group.

Harry immediately bristled at his approach but Ginny stepped on his foot to prevent him from taking any action. "Indeed Headmaster, let's hope the new Minister is incorruptible from all outside influences."

It was a subtle barb and she wondered is the headmaster would even realize what she had really just said. Probably not, she decided the man could be very obtuse when he wished to be.

With that finished they resumed their walk back towards the Quidditch pitch.

…

Former Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge's hearing was terse. He was given an hour to speak on his own behalf and call any witnesses he might, unfortunately for him all his potential allies saw the writing on the wall and were avoiding taking his side. Indeed his two strongest underlings, Rufus Scrimgeour and Art Mory, were both temporarily siding against him.

Two hours after the hearing began The UK Ministry of Magic had selected Amos Diggory as Interim Minister of Magic until an official vote, which would be held at the end of the month.

Fudge swore he wasn't finished and that he'd get back at the boy who lived and the members of the Wizengamot just shook their heads in disgust.

…

Albus Dumbledore had just finished the proceedings and was now attempting to orchestrate the Wizengamot in a manner that Amos Diggory a member of the Order of the Phoenix would be able to hang onto the position and make it permanent and not just temporary. To complicate the matters the man didn't really want the position.

He sighed and shook his head. Somehow he felt that Harry Potter must have had his hand in this. The charges he had brought forward hadn't been enough to have taken Cornelius out of power by them self, rather their timing is what had done the pompous politician in. Potter must have been coached on doing this. After all, the boy had been getting a fair amount of mail lately. It was time to start getting the boy back under his control. First he'd have to start restricting young Harry's communication out of Hogwarts. Whoever who he was trading correspondence with was a potential bad influence on the boy, then he'd have to work with Severus to get the boy's attitude in check. Following that perhaps he'd take the lad on for private lessons. Yes, Harry should be happy to get some extra training to fight his enemy, except he'd make sure the spells he taught Harry would be slightly off so he wouldn't be able to use them at full strength. It would be impossible to redeem Tom Riddle if he were dead.

Yes, by the end of the month Harry Potter would once again be a weapon to be wielded to turn Tom Riddle back to the path of light.

…

Unaware of the machinations of the headmaster, or the plotting of the former minister of magic, Harry turned his attention to his studies with a grim determination. He was planning to launch Black Ink by the end of the month and there was much to do. Working with the goblins had helped bring his time line up by two months, but he still had to keep his grades up and his head down.

October proceeded without hesitation while Harry was focusing on his studies. He was proud that Gryffindor's Quidditch team, though using less pitch time than the other teams were, was at the top of their game. Early in the year he had implemented a new system to train the team. Every practice started with muggle-style exercise followed by a scrimmage game between the regular and reserve team. Then afterwards they reviewed everything that happened and looked for ways to improve their plays. Katie and Ron had designed some wicked plays for the chasers and the Weasley twins were taking the training of the next generation of beaters very seriously.

Additionally everyone was now practicing off the field. Every team member carried with them a muggle golf ball; when seeing each other in the halls or before classes chasers would pass them to each other, beaters would hit them back with little paddles Harry had given them, and the keepers would have to catch them. Katie was impressed with the results and with the two in agreement they shortened practices to twice a week.

Cutting down on practice time had done two things: helped him keep ahead in his classes, and perhaps more importantly coordinate with Griphook on the whole Black Ink launch. He had also turned down Dumbledore's 'generous' offer to train him. "I'm sorry Headmaster, but all things considered I don't want to waste your time. I'm studying as hard as I can on my own and I know you are a busy man coordinating the fight against Voldemort and all."

He had debated borrowing another Pensieve so he could take a picture of the Headmaster's expression when he had said that, as he had resembled a fish out of water. About the only blot on life at Hogwarts was Defense Against the Dark Arts, a class he was rapidly debating dropping. 'I'll give it till Christmas and if it doesn't get better I'll just do independent study.' He thought to himself as he debated the only other problem he was in the middle of. Girl problems. He was fending off three to four invitations to the Halloween Feast a day, and that was with him already avoiding the majority of the populace. He was debating Asking Hermione of Ginny just so he could have a simple excuse the next time he was asked.

"Harry?"

'Bugger' he thought as Cho Chang approached him in the hallway. "Yes Cho?"

"I was wondering if you were planning on taking someone to the Halloween feast?"

"As a matter of fact Cho I… What was THAT?" he yelled and pointed. When she turned to see what he was talking about he slipped on his invisibility cloak and slid over to the wall.

"What was what Harry?" she asked turning back towards him before realizing that he was now gone. "Oh blast he got away!" she snapped and stalked down the hall; her attention focused on finding the green eyed boy.

Seeing that the raven haired beauty was no longer near him he removed the cloak and attempted to make his way to dinner when, "Harry?"

He cursed under his breath as he turned around. "Hello Susan, how are you?"

"I'm doing well, I was just wondering…"

'_Bloody Hell!_' he screamed in his mind as his face remained a perfectly neutral smile. "Yes?"

"Do you know if Seamus is going to the Halloween Feast with anyone?"

Harry blinked, that had caught him off guard. Completely off guard, "I'm not sure Susan, I can ask him for you."

"Oh Harry you're the best!" she squealed and jumped up giving him a quick hug and earning glares from girls all over the room. He patted her back feeling awkward and she suddenly let him go and pushed herself away blushing. "I'm sorry Harry, I didn't mean anything like that and…"

He chuckled and shook his head, "You're fine Susan, though I think you might have to explain yourself to some of your housemates. I'll ask Seamus and get him to ask you if he's not going with anyone."

As luck would have it Seamus wasn't going with anyone and was delighted to be taking the beautiful Hufflepuff to the feast. Later that night Harry made his way to Ginny and Hermione. Ginny was going with Dean whom she wasn't dating, but wanted to annoy her brother a little bit. Dean, who understood and wanted to get Ron back for a prank played earlier had readily agreed. Neville had a private engagement with Moody for the evening and would miss the feast so Harry had decided to ask Hermione if she'd accompany him to the feast.

She was surprised but happily agreed and Harry and Ginny traded a quick look when they saw Neville's agitated response. The day quickly came to an end and the Gryffindors all turned in for the night, even the Twins who were planning some sort of private prank.

The next morning came all too soon and since it was a Saturday Harry and Ginny were in the Room of Requirements by themselves. They had started the morning with a quick workout with Hermione and then the three parted ways.

Harry and Ginny had been extremely careful, bordering on paranoid, about some of their training. While they trusted Hermione and the Twins, some things were their own private secret, and would also be cause for a lot of teasing if the others knew what their training entailed.

At the moment Harry was being held in a wordless, wandless levitation spell that Ginny who was in the same boat, except that Harry was keeping her in the air. .

"Ready Ginny?" he asked as he began to rotate slightly.

"To kick you arse Harry? Anytime!"

He flicked a finger and conjured a small leaf that floated towards the floor. As soon as it touched the ground the two began.

Harry started by throwing two stinging hexes at her. Ginny responded with a wandless protego and followed up with her bat-bogey hex.

He rolled, still in the air and the spell missed him by a fraction. He sent three tickling jinxes at her.

She blocked one with another wandless protego, ducked out of the way of the second, but Harry had anticipated her movement so the last one hit her. She laughed as the spell took effect, but quickly cast a wandless finite ending it quickly. She glared up at the boy who lived and then sent another bat bogey hex aimed at his center so he couldn't dodge.

He conjured up a shield that blocked the curse before fading away. He then cast a stunner at her. He thought for sure he had her when a brick was conjured in front of her and he dropped to the floor.

He landed easily on his feet and canceled his own levitation spell plucking her out of the air and setting her down on a couch the room provided.

"That was amazing Ginny, wordless conjuring is one of the hardest things to do wandlessly! Was that your first time?"

"Tired, want to sleep." She replied listlessly, obviously drained.

He glanced at his watch, and deciding that there was enough time drew his wand and waved it transfiguring the couch into a bed.

"Rest now, I'll keep watch. for a couple hours."

He studied her as she slept, she looked so peaceful at the moment, quite a change from when she was awake, he thought to himself with a smile. When she was active she was a ball of energy, seeming both playful and serious at the same time. He blinked as he suddenly remembering someone else who had been similar in their manner, distinctly remembering a rousing chorus of God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriff Harry absently brushed away the tears.

Deciding to put the time to good use he pulled out _A Guide on Magical Theory and Practices_, by Merlin, edited by R. Ravenclaw. It was the only copy in existence and he had already read it several times with his enhancers and he still managed to learn something new every time he read it, it was almost as if the book itself was revealing more to him the more he read...

He shrugged and stopped suddenly when he read a paragraph about sharing magical energy. The entry read, "_One of the inherit dangers of performing advanced magic without the use of a focus such as a wand or staff is magical exhaustion. While rarely fatal to a wizard or witch it can make them unable to perform magic for a time as well as leaving them physically exhausted. While rest is one of the easiest cures to Magical Exhaustion there are other forms of treatment, one of the most common of the day is by sharing magical energies._"

He stopped and read that again, he had never heard of that, in fact, he created a copy of _Miss Matilda's Methods for Magical Maladies _and looked up magical exhaustion. The only method of treatment the book described was rest, he looked for an entry in the index for sharing magical energies and the closest thing he could find was a spell that would be cast on a person that would slow their systems down to allow more time for treatment.

Intrigued he put the modern book down and picked up the ancient book again. "_Sharing magical energies is a simple procedure to any practitioner of wandless magic, merely bring your magic to your hands as if you were preparing to cast a spell, and then releasing the energy into the person to be treated. It should be noted that the donor of magical energy must be at peace so that the raw magic will not harm the person it is intended for. A simple practice is to..._" He continued reading and then used the practice it recommended before turning to his exhausted partner.

"I'm sorry Ginny I should have paid more attention to make sure you wouldn't be burning yourself out. For now let me help you." As there was no response he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He focused his thoughts on the garden in the Flamel's mansion in Devon. Feeling at peace he brought the energy to his hands and gently brushed Ginny's forehead.

Two hours after she had passed out on the couch-transfigured-to-bed Ginny Weasley woke up feeling more relaxed and at peace than she had in five years. It reminded her of the time she had been terrified during a thunderstorm and snuck into her eldest brother Bill's room shaking from the experience. He had wrapped her up in a comforter and tucked her into his bed while sleeping on a chair beside her so she could tensely clutch his hand. When she finally awoke the next morning she had felt comforted and safe, and that feeling of security was something she hadn't felt since the diary incident in her first year.

Without any outward sign she was awake - she had even managed to keep her breathing even - Ginny slowly let her eyes open ever-so-slightly and saw that Harry was sitting next to her reading something. Suddenly she understood why she felt so safe. While slightly different than her relationship with her family, Harry was one of only four people she trusted completely and without any hesitation. Her father, her oldest brother Bill, and Perenelle Flamel among the remaining three. "Harry?"

"Ginny, oh good, I was starting to get worried."

"What happened?"

"What do you remember?"

"I remember conjuring a brick… Harry I did a wordless wandless conjure!"

He smiled at the sudden return of enthusiasm. "Yes you did, however…"

"I was so drained I dropped the levitation spell that was holding you up, and then fell asleep, and then a little while ago I felt a comforting warmth and then I woke up." Her eyes narrowed as she saw him blush a little.

"Harry James Potter What did you do!"

Instead of answering he turned the book for her to read the entry on sharing magical energies. "You did this for me?"

"I'm sorry Ginny, I shouldn't have pushed your wandless training so hard."

She shook her head. "No I'm just trying so hard to catch up, should we write grand-mère about this?"

"It is the type of thing she'd want to know, you can keep the restrictors on for now but don't do any wandless practicing until your reserves are full again, probably be a few days."

"What should we practice in the mean time?" she said with a wicked gleam in her eye.

He gulped suddenly feeling like a mouse cornered by a predatory cat, then promptly vanished before her sight. "I was thinking of stealth techniques myself," came the reply from the air. She closed her eyes and focused, her mage sight wasn't nearly as formed as Harry's, but it was much better than… Before she could do anything Harry reappeared in front of her and pushed her down.

"Blast it Ginny, what did I just say about not practicing wandless magic!"

"Oh, I thought you mean casting wandless spells."

"No! Don't do any form of magic done without a focus, and that includes mage-sight and apparation.

"Well in that case…" her gleam was back and she quick drew a wand.

Within five seconds Harry was running and dodging the torrent of curses she was flinging at him.

…

When the two turned up for dinner Harry had a slight limp and Ginny a grin a mile wide.

Hermione took one look at the pair and motioned for them to sit by her. "What happened to you?" she asked more to Harry than Ginny.

Harry just shook her head and Ginny smiled at her before responding. "Harry and I had a discussion on whether or not to train you and I won."

"Train me?"

"We'll talk later." She said giving Ron and Neville a Glance.

In point of fact it would be training for Hermione, Luna and the Twins. Neville and Ron were well ahead of them because of their work with Moody and Harry and Ginny were way beyond them from their self study and training from the Flamels. "Anyway we need another late night meeting tonight, lets try and include Luna in on this one. We need to get the Professor's attention away from us somehow."

"On it," replied Ginny and pulled out a piece of two-way parchment. A moment later she said, "done. Just don't be too surprised about any after dinner announcements."

The group ate and as they were getting ready to leave the Great Hall the doors burst open. "Death Eater Sighting in Hogsmeade!" yelled a townsperson.

The staff jumped to their feet. "Junior Aurors to me!" ordered Dumbledore "Professors to Hogsmeade, Junior Aurors to monitor the halls."

Ginny gave him a grin and went to collect Luna while he and Hermione navigated some of the secret passages to avoid running into patrols. The Twins beat them and the six entered to Room of Requirement as Harry put up some serious privacy wards.

…

In the town of Hogsmeade just outside of Hogwarts a group of sixteen newly minted death eaters apparated in. Their mission was simple. The dark lord had given them orders to Apparate in and cause as much chaos as possible before apparating back out. The plan was to stir up the different towns now that Cornelius Fudge had been removed and make life as difficult as possible.

Across the major points in England the dark lord's forces would be doing the same, it was a coordinated attack with three separate targets. Unfortunately for this group Ginny's fake warning had sent Dumbledore and members of the order running down in a panic.

The battle was fierce and very short, within two minutes all sixteen death eaters had been subdued and captured. Dumbledore smiled in pride, never even realizing that they had actually arrived before the death eaters that they had been warned about.

…

In Diagon Alley things had started out very well for the team of fifteen death eaters, they had apparated in and found little resistance easily making their way towards their intended target.

Their lord he-who-must-not-be-named had ordered them to destroy the shop of the blood traitors named Weasley. It had been easy enough to find the shop, the sign above the door had been charmed to shift colors, and they were all glowing and obnoxious colors.

Milfay, a distant relative to the Malfoy family strolled up to the door and pointed his wand at it. "Reducto," he bellowed, and a jet of red light shot into the door.

To his surprise, instead of blasting open the door glowed red and two crystals above the frame lit up like two torches. He raised his hand to shield his eyes from the bright light.

When he lowered his arm there were two people standing at the door, a short wizard who had a strange look on his face and a slightly taller, rather fetching witch.

The wizard was rocking on his heels in excitement. "You see H.G.? I told you that the crystal transference alarm would work."

The witch sighed before nodding, "yes you were right this time, but remember the last time we field tested a crystal?"

They both shuddered at the memory before the wizard cleared his throat and addressed the death eaters. "Ah yes, I am the Professor and I represent Black Inc., a new company here in England." The death eaters were all staring at him with what he assumed would be confused looks under their masks. "As Black Inc. is currently in process of acquiring Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes this building is currently under our jurisdiction. As such you juvenile attempt at vandalism is unappreciated and we will give you a chance to vacate the premises before we... "

"Avada Kedavra!" interrupted a death eater sending the hauntingly green spell towards the pair.

The spell hit the wizard and he burst into flames before falling to the ground his body jerking around. The death eaters were watching the reaction and failed to notice the small round object rolling under their feet.

BOOM!

The small object exploded and the fifteen death eaters were sent flying. The ones who remained conscious were quickly attacked by the platoon of Gringotts Guards who had been silently approaching.

"Gringotts' Security Specialist Graytpaine at your service. You are representatives of Black Ink are you not?"

"Yes we are," answered the Professor, as he and H.G. stepped out from the alley they had been hiding in. He turned to H.G. "The decoys worked rather well, don't you think?"

"Quite well, the alarms worked too."

"If I may ask..." interrupted the Goblin surprisingly polite, "what was the small thing you threw at the death eaters before they went flying?"

"That? Oh that was my automatic room cleaner."

The Goblin looked around at the dead and unconscious death eaters scattered across the area of Diagon Alley. "Automatic room cleaner?" he asked weakly.

"Well if the room ceases to exist you could hardly call it unclean now could you?"

H.G. smacked him before he could get carried away and interrupted. "Thank you for your timely assistance, are you part of the new Gringotts liaison division of Black Ink?"

The Goblin gave her a toothy grin and shook his head, "No that position has yet to be decided, personally I think that Griphook will receive the posting merely because he is acquainted with Mr. Black already, most of my co-wokers however, are betting that Soldfool will get the position based on seniority."

"You said that Mr. Black knows Griphook?"

"Fairly well from what I understand."

The two traded a look and H.G. pulled out a bag of coins. "For us, place two hundred Galleons on Griphook as well."

Graytpaine smiled making his toothy grin look downright scary as he accepted the bag and made a notation on a piece of parchment that was being used to track the bets. "It will be my pleasure. May the winds of profit fuel your riches."

"Well now do we do?" asked H.G. as the two walked back into the WWW shop.

"First we'll send a letter to Mr. Black, then we'll do the same thing we do every night, develop new magical devices that will help Black Ink beat the man who wants to conquer the world."

As the door closed a sharp listener might have heard, "that's fine but don't expect me to say narf."

Back at Hogwarts the founders of Black Ink were sitting in the room of requirement.

"Okay, now it's time to get down to business, thanks to someone's prank it looks like we'll have a little time to discuss some issues, the first is to welcome Luna into Black Ink."

"Harry I have nothing against this but are you sure about her?" Hermione asked, fingering her wand in a way that prompted Harry to mutter 'Constant Vigilance' under his breath.

Ginny handled the answer for them. "Hermione, among other skills that I feel makes her invaluable, Luna has natural occlumancy skills that make her one of the most trustworthy people in Hogwarts, she has been one of my contacts since I started here after all."

Hermione was taken back for a moment, but then nodded her consent. With that question answered Harry took charge over the meeting again.

"Good, I had the opportunity to learn a lot over the summer and Ginny has already hidden a wealth of knowledge that we are now going to begin to share with all of you."

For the next two hours Harry and Ginny taught the other four some of the basics of information gathering spells. Hermione and Luna soaked the information up like sponges, and even the twins seemed to be paying attention and not joking around for a change.

When they finished the twins helped Hermione sneak back to the tower unnoticed.

Luna stayed behind to chat with Harry and Ginny for a bit.

The rest of the October passed as fast as the previous weeks and to Dumbledore's great frustration the Halloween feast arrived and he was still unable to regain control over his 'weapon'.

The only good news it seemed was the captured death eaters from both Hogsmeade attacks. Because of those prisoners, the Order had managed to get information on two other attacks and prevented them from happening. Unfortunately the Death Eaters who participated in the Diagon Alley attack had been picked up by the ministry before any order member could glean any information from them. Like the site of the first Hogsmeade skirmish the only item left that the Aurors noted was a small bottle of black ink. Most curious of objects indeed, he wondered if perhaps it was something that one of the Death Eaters had dropped in the fights and it was something that Voldemort was requiring.

He paced around his office to the amusement of the portraits and the annoyance of Fawkes. Aggravated, the phoenix left to hunt, returning only after he had gone to the feast.

He couldn't understand how things had gone so downhill, Severus had managed to give the boy several more detentions but if anything it was making young Harry more obstinate. He needed to do something to break the boys spirit, but without making it look like he was singling the boy out. Somehow the brat seemed to out maneuver him at every turn; it almost seemed that fate had it in for him. To make matters worse Voldemort was becoming more active, and it was very likely that he'd strike somewhere tonight, the night he had been defeated 15 years ago. He continued to pace in his office deep in thought.

…

"So Harry, Ginny when are you two going public with the fact that you can use wandless magic?"

Harry's jaw dropped. Ginny just giggled at his expression. "You forget Potter, while you were tactical operations I was field surveillance. Part of that includes creating a network of informants, and fake identities, though I think you've mastered that part beyond me. Anyway Luna is my spymaster here at Hogwarts, I don't think that theres anything that happens here that she doesn't know about."

The blond girl shrugged, "There are a few places that I still haven't been able to pierce, Snapes lair, Dumbledore's office, and the chamber. Everywhere else if it happens I'll know. Of course your training facilities fall off when you go in there but then if there were two people to trust it would be you two. If you want to make a logical conclusion, the only people I can't keep tabs on are the ones with something to hide. It's just like the Crumple Horned Snorcacks; to hide themselves they've created places where monitoring magics just don't work."

The red head broke in before Harry could do something foolish like ask why a crumpled horned snorkac would hide itself or what secrets they had and changed the subject. "What about the other profressors Luna?"

"The only ones to really watch are McGonagall, Vector, Flitwick and Madam Pomfrey. Though in addition to being a good herbologist professor Sprout does use some rather questionable fertalizers."

"Oh?"

"Yes I was shocked to see her adding that to some of the plants, I mean..."

"No, I mean what about the others make them worth watching?"

"Oh! McGonagall's been suspicious of some of the headmaster's recent activities so you can occasionally find some interesting tid bits on what he's been up to. Madam Pomfrey keeps tabs on the medical condition of the staff so when they get hurt it keys me into the fact that they might be doing certain activities based on their injuries. Vector is working on her thesis for a book on Arithmancy so it's very interesting."

"And Professor Flitwick?"

"He dances with Garled Pickomeets. That's always interesting to observe."

Harry blinked while Ginny hid her smile behind a cough. "Thats... uh thats really... err interesting there Luna. By the way how did you know about the wandless thing?"

"Oh it's easy both you and Ginny have very distinctive wands, I doubt any of the professors have noticed, but the wands you two are using in charms class don't have cores. You can tell because if you watch carefully you'll see the light of the spell traveling the length of the wand instead of just coming out from the tip, mind you thats only with spells that leave a visible trail."

"We'll have to start using our normal wands in class then."

Harry nodded before frowning in distaste. "I have a ton of monitoring charms on mine, I should have been using it all along. don't know if any of the people monitoring my wand have noticed it hasn't been used."

Ginny shook her head "It's probably safe to say the Hogwarts Wards would interfere with those, after all that's the problem I have trying to track Dumbledore's actions."

Harry's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You've landed monitoring charms on him?"

"Me personally one or two, Luna's gotten him at least a dozen times, the wards just cut them off, when he's clear of the wards they become active, but only till he finds them and notices them."

Harry glanced at his real wand with mage-sight to his surprise nearly all of the monitoring charms were inoperable. "He notices them?"

Luna smiled "Of course he does, he's not stupid. However I take care to make it seem like Snape's the one monitoring him."

"Nice work then."

"Hold up, I know you had your wand for the end of the Summer, how did you avoid them?"

Ginny handled the answer for Harry. "We had a warding specialist transfer the charms to a fake wand, when we came back to Hogwarts we reversed the process."

"Facinating. Perhaps that's how the Snorcacks avoid detection."

"Errrr right." Replied Harry uncertainly.

"Luna, is there anything else that you think we need to know?"

"Are you aware that most of Harry's incoming mail is being screened?"

"That dirty old codger, I'm going to…"

"Do nothing for now. Luna see if you can find out what's been done to his missing mail."

Harry glanced at his watch, "Ginny it's two hours till the feast."

"Is it that late! Hurry up Luna!"

He blinked as the two hurried out to get ready for the feast shaking his head. Voldemort was simple, Dumbledore was obvious, but he didn't think he'd ever understand girls.

…

Two hours later found a very pretty Hermione standing next to a surprisingly dashing Harry Potter. "You cleaned up well Harry."

"Why thank you M'lady." He offered her his arm as they approached the door to the great hall. "If the beautiful lady would honor me with her arm to escort her."

Hermione giggled slightly and Harry blinked, "Hermione did you just giggle?"

She glared at him for a second and then smiled. "Is there something wrong with me giggling Harry Potter?"

He suddenly realized his mistake and moved fast to cover it. "Why no M'lady. I was just surprised to hear how melodic you are."

Hermione studied him for a moment as they entered the hall and made there way to there seats. "Ginny's been good for you Harry."

"What's that supposed to mean Hermione?" he asked but she refused to answer that question for the rest of the night.

"You know this really beats second year when we went to Nick's death-day party."

Hermione shuddered at the memory and nodded. "You're not joking! That was truly horrid. Thanks for tonight Harry, I appreciate you willing to take me since Neville was out."

"I should be thanking you Hermione, the company of a beautiful young witch is an honor."

"Flatterer." She said but with a smile which turned into a smirk. "Speaking of other dates, I've noticed you've been glaring at Dean a lot tonight. Has he done something to annoy you recently?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about Hermione."

She smiled again, anyone else who hadn't known him as long or as well as she had would have bought the act but she had noticed his attention occasionally wander when certain people passed by. It was little more than a flicker of his eyes and only the sharpest would have caught the action. Hermione was one of the few who knew him well enough to notice. "Sure Harry, just remember that she has six older brothers." Her smile turned out to be a smirk as he blushed and Dumbledore rose to make the end of feast comments.

…

Voldemort grimaced. His last attack hadn't gone as planned, but tonight would be a different story. He'd strike as reminder to the wizarding world that they still weren't safe from his death eaters. "Wormtail! Gather a group toegether and go strike that wretched store that those blood traitor Weasley's set up. The last attack failed and I will have an answer as to why!"

Trembling, the portly, out of shape , mousy looking man ran out of the room terrified.

Behind him his master laughed, this would remind that Potter brat and that muggle loving fool that he would not be defeated on Halloween again.

…

"Harry are you alright?" Asked Hermione as he suddenly clutched his forehead and groaned in pain.

"Mr. Potter come with me immediately." Ordered Dumbledore.

"Death Eaters attack Diagon Alley!" Harry screamed causing the once calm great hall to be overtaken in pandemonium.

In the ensuing chaos that the Headmaster and heads of houses attempted to restore order Harry, Ginny Hermione, the Twins, Ron and Luna slipped out.

"Harry, what's wrong?"

"Voldemort isn't happy with his last attack he's sending a group to destroy the twin's shop."

Ginny gasped in horror, "Harry they've got part-timers living there, they don't stand a chance." She knew who was really there but didn't dare name anyone in front of Ron.

"I know! We need to get them out of there."

"Leave it to us Harry," said Ron confidently as he pulled a mirror out of his pocket. "Neville!"

After a pause Neville's face appeared on the mirror. "Ron, what's wrong? You know Moody hates having his lessons interrupted."

"Nevermind that, Deatheaters are getting ready to attack the twins shop, get Moody to assemble the force and get over there, we've got Civvies on the premises."

Neville cursed eloquently and ran to get things moving. Ron turned to the rest of the group, "I'll go handle things with the Headmaster you guys get Harry to bed he looks like hell."

"Language Ron!" snapped Hermione, before adding, "Good luck."

He gave her a smirk and then ran out the door yelling names into his mirror apparently more members of the junior Auror force.

"I'm fine now, thanks." Ginny and Hermione nodded.

"What's the plan Harry?" asked Luna who looked serious for a change the dreamy expression on her face replaced with something that Harry found somewhat intimidating.

"Until we get the rest of you trained up in techniques the only people going anywhere are Ginny and myself."

"Harry James Potter if you think we're going to sit here while…"

"Silencio!" Hermione now fumed silently while Fred replaced his wand.

"Thank you, now as I was saying, Ginny and I are the only two people I'm willing to put into the field unless it's a dire emergency and even then only if you've been fully trained. Neither of those requirements are met tonight. Besides, what we need isn't a battle force but an extraction. Ginny and I will go, she will enter the store to remove our subjects and their work, while I buy time by sowing confusion into the Aurors and Death eaters. If all goes well we'll be in and out before they begin the attack."

"What do you want the rest of us to do?" asked Fred and George.

"We'll be gone for about an hour. I need you two to provide a distraction at the castle for us to slip out and then back in again. Something big and grandiose. Hermione this is a chance to get some extra information from the restricted section in the Library, Madam Prince will be asked to help once the staff leaves. Use a copy spell and just makes copies of as many books as you can manage. Luna see if you can reduce your problem areas. Also if all of you lot can pass the word, we're reviving the D.A. I just need to figure out how."

"We'll take care of it Harry. You two get going - time is going to be short on this one."

"Thanks. Luna, I'll make sure he comes back in one piece. Neville too."

Both Luna and Hermione, who had given up trying to yell at this point, blushed as Harry and Ginny grinned as they ran out of the room.

…

The Order was currently working with the Auror and junior Auror force preparing to storm the Diagon Alley at the arrival of the death eaters. The three groups were standing in front of a large map of the alley. "They'll likely apparate in at this apparation point rather than the other two."

"What if they floo in?"

"We can't cover every fireplace, we don't have the manpower."

Moody shook his head and gestured to his Junior aurors. "While you adults work this out, I'm taking my team in here." He pointed to the map. "According to Potter the target is the Weasley boy's shop so we'll enforce a defensive perimeter here. If they get by you we'll give them a bloody welcome they won't likely forget."

"Alastor that's brilliant, we'll have an initial welcome and let them withdraw making the Death Eaters think they've won, and then ambush them for all we're worth." Proclaimed an excited Auror with bright pink hair.

"An excellent suggestion Nymphadora, one I was about to suggest myself, though I think we should reinforce the Junior Aurors, I'd hate for anything to happen to this young generation of stars."

Moody rolled his eye while Tonks shifted her hair color in annoyance. Catching her attention Moody mouthed. "Good call."

She saw him and nodded just enough so he, and no one else, would notice. They both knew that Dumbledore would have suggested something useless or ineffective had he been given the chance.

…

Harry and Ginny arrived, but not at any designated apparation point. They apparated right into the shop but stood very still, not wanting to trigger the security measures once they arrived. "We solemnly swear we are up to no good." There was a shimmer and a door appeared. Ginny grabbed it reaching for her pendant at the same time while Harry positioned himself near the window and watched using his mage sight.

…

Ginny burst into the lab startling one half of the pair of genius inventors. "We've come to extract you two, this position's been compromised."

"Bloody hell!" snapped H.G. as she pulled her wand and began casting several packing spells. She then grabbed Ginny's arm and pulled her out of the lab and into the library where the Professor was sitting.

"Something wrong?"

"We've been compromised, Firebrand is here for extraction."

"Bugger. Let's make this quick, be a dear and pack up the bedrooms H.G. I'll take care of the library and office."

She nodded and continued back. Ginny for her part flicked her wrist producing a wand and pointed it at the door, the dark red of a reductor curse already forming around the end.

…

Harry would have been impressed had he focused his attention inward, instead he was looking out.

He nodded in thoughtful approval as he watched the Junior Auror force arrive and take positions covering all approaches to the shop. He saw Neville's distinctive aura and suddenly realized that Moody must be here. He focused a bit of magic into his wand and wrote in front of him. "Extraction in progress. Holding line for two then abandon. Do not enter structure."

He saw the magical signature of Moody's eye and the watched as the wand closest to the eye moved. "Message received, Dumbledore arriving soon."

Harry cursed and hoped Ginny and the others would be quick.

…

Ginny didn't say a word but was seriously impressed. The packing spell on the lab didn't just pack the contents of the room it packed the entire room into a small cube which was picked up by H.G. and placed in a bag with the rest of their belongings. The pair nodded to her and they proceeded back into the atrium.

"Paladin, we are clear." She reported to him as they emerged.

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, get out of here I'll be right behind you."

She nodded and produced a portkey and took the trio to the roof of the Leaky Cauldron. She then pulled out another port key which took them to a muggle flat. Finally a third that took them to Hogsmeade.

"They first two are traceable, the third is not." She said by explanation. "Paladin and I both value your expertise and want you to realize that we plan to protect the staff of Black Ink."

The Professor nodded. "We appreciate your support and candor. Hopefully we won't have to move like this all the time."

"Indeed, we are working on setting up an official headquarters for Black Inc. For now this portkey will take you to our London safe-house. Go there and set up temporary shop. Hopefully by the end of Winter Holidays we'll have something more permanent set up."

H.G. smiled in thanks. "Good luck Firebrand. You'd best get back to school now."

She nodded and headed towards the Hogsmeade safe-house. "We'll be in touch." She said as the pair port-keyed out. She slipped into the safe-house and made her way to the sealed entrance. She grimaced as used her own mage-sight and found the spot she had to press. She did so quickly and stopped her mage-sight rubbing her temple mage-sight gave her a head-ache and she had left her glasses back at Hogwarts. She made her way to then entrance and remembering what had happened last time, cast a complicated invisibility spell on herself before stepping through the illusionary wall.

…

Harry was counting down on his watch he had told Moody two minutes and he had another thirty second before he extracted. In the mean-time he was layering traps all over the room for anyone who stepped through the door. They were rather mild if you didn't have a dark-mark on your arm, if you did though the results would be rather… ugly.

He felt a huge magical presence apparating nearby and checked to make sure he had already masked his magical signature. He had. Before Dumbledore, for no one else had a presence that strong, came too close for Harry's comfort the timer on his watch went to zero and the port-key he had setup activated. He didn't realize it at the time, but another few seconds and he could have watched the show.

…

Fifteen seconds later a group of fifteen Death Eaters arrived at the Alley. The immediately began cursing the Aurors that were around. The team of Aurors fought for a bit and then made a quick withdraw obviously realizing they were grossly outnumbered. At least, that's what the death eaters thought.

They made their way to the blood traitor Weasley shop and one of the new recruits cast the dark mark over the building while another blasted the door with a hex and then walked into the building.

As he crossed the threshold of the door the fifteen spells Harry had cast all activated at once. A large explosion shattered the front of the shop and sent the body flying into the building across from it. The death eaters panicking began throwing curses at the shop. At that moment the Junior Auror force and the members of the Order who had been waiting in ambush began casting their spells.

There was confusion and chaos but after only a minute the smoke cleared.

…

The next morning the Daily Prophet arrived and on the front cover was a picture from the aftermath of the battle. It showed Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Cho Chang, and Michael Corner placing binding cuffs on several death eaters amidst the wreckage of WWW. Above the picture was the headline. "Toll from Death Eater attack, Two missing employees, one burnt shop. Thirteen death eaters captured, one escaped."

"What about the last one? There were fifteen Death Eaters right?" Asked Hermione who had gotten the story out of Ron before Lunch.

"The last one didn't make it, some serious security work at the store blew him and the store up. St. Mungo's couldn't do anything for him."

The twins ogled Harry for a moment but then turned their attention back to the prank they had planning. There would be time for details later.

Dumbledore arrived late to the Great Hall that evening and made an announcement. One that pleased roughly half of the student population while making the other half groan. In an effort to help promote good morale Hogwarts would be hosting another Yule Ball, but this one would be open to the ministry as well.

…

That evening Harry's team slipped into the Room of Requirement while the Junior Aurors met with Moody for a continued debrief from the night before.

"Okay Harry I want to know exactly what I missed." Demanded Hermione as Ginny set up the wards around the room.

"First off Dumbledore is intercepting all my mail so there are things I didn't know yesterday that I know now.Luna?"

"Last night during the operation I took some time to break into Dumbledore's office. I found the mail sitting in a pile. He hadn't opened any of it yet, I made a fake pile of non-consequential letters and replaced it with Harry's letters, I also took the liberty of planting around a dozen or so passive monitoring charm."

"How did you avoid the portraits?"

"Localized freezing charm, didn't fool Fawkes, but from the way he sang while I was there I think he didn't mind at all."

"Well it makes sense considering what we learned."

"Indeed it does Ginny."

"Can we please get back on topic here?"

"You mean we're going to talk about Crumple horned Snorkacks now?"

"No!" snapped the bushy haired girl. "We are going to sit and listen while Harry fills us in on last night's events and anything else he forgot to mention."

"Okay, lets get serious then." Harry concentrated for a moment and table with chairs appeared. Taking a seat at the head of the table he indicated for the rest to follow suit. Ginny sat to his right, Luna his left. Hermione sat opposite of him flanked on each side by a twin. "Last night Ginny and I undertook an extraction operation. Our objective was not to engage the enemy but to secure our subjects and move them to safe quarters which we accomplished. I warded the store and then evacuated the premises. Apparently one of the Death Eaters attempted to gain entry and was eliminated the rest were captured or arrested by the Junior Auror division. After my return to Hogwarts I met with Luna who raided the Headmasters office and retrieved my correspondence. Ginny how did it go after we split up?"

"After Harry and I arrived at the objective I coordinated the withdraw of the subjects, then took two fake port-keys before we took the correct one. Our subjects are now in a temporary secure facility, and we need to look into a headquarters branch of some sort." She finished her report and nodded back to Harry.

"Very good. Fred, George what else happened at Hogwarts?"

"We monitored the junior aurors as well as most of the staff as they left for their part in the operation. Once they were gone we began setting off several harmless but very loud pranks against the Slytherins. We continued our operation for about an hour and then ceased activities." She nodded to Hermione.

"I was able to copy roughly one fifth of the restricted section during the hour diversion. I was also able to pass the word to a few people that there plans to revive the DA but nothing in concrete yet."

"Excellent work Hermione, the books are...?"

"In a bag that Luna provided me that's apparently as warded as this room is."

"Excellent work, so any question to any part of last nights operations?"

"Luna are the monitoring charms secure?"

"Yes, they are all passive monitoring charms, and don't use active magic so only the most skilled person with mage sight would notice something, and even then might not be able to spot it, the best one though is this." She held up a small object.

"And that would be?"

"Ginny?"

"It's what muggles would refer to as a listening device. It works of ambient magical energy and then transmits via radio frequencies, and it's got a special flux coating that allows it to function in high magical environments such as Hogwarts."

Notcing everyone staring at her in shock she shrugged. "That's how the professor explained it to me, now as to what that means, I have only a base understanding."

"The short explanation is we can listen into what goes on without him knowing."

"Marvelous, any other questions?"

"Could you..."

"Possibly explain..."

"Just what happened to the shop?"

"In addition to the already impressive security wards you have set up, I layered somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty blasting, exploding, cutting and burning hexes. As you can see from the picture, even though he lost 15 men, Tommie boy will probably count this as a victory as your shop is destroyed."

The twins shivered. "Right…"

"Harry old bean…"

"Remind us to never…"

"Ever…"

"Get on your bad side." They chorused.

"Any other questions?"

"You mentioned mail Harry?"

"Quite right Hermione, as Luna mentioned earlier my mail had been intercepted. Last night it was recovered and I spent an hour this morning sorting through it. The biggest news came via Gringotts bloody secure post."

"Harry you should watch your language."

"I wasn't swearing Hermione, when I say bloody security post I mean it. It requires the blood of the recipient before it becomes readable. First off we now have an official name. We are Black, Inc. Our calling card is a bottle of black ink. I was trying to get Black Ink as the name but the Goblins advised against it. We have an alliance with Gringotts and our contact person is Griphook. My official cover is Mr. Black and Ginny is Miss Scarlet. Details of Black Inc. will be worked on at our next meeting which will be next week. Anything else?"

No one else responded.

"Well I have one then, as I'm assuming that Neville will ask Hermione and Luna will have to ask Ron," he took a deep breath. "Ginny would you to go the Yule Ball with me?"


	5. Chapter 5

This chapter has been sitting on my computer and back from Beta's for months, I'm just not 100% happy with it, but I keep getting these reviews asking if I've abandoned the story and the answer is a most definite no. However, I'm working on a couple other fics which will be posting soon… I'm looking fo a couple Beta's one is a Naruto/Star Wars crossover, the other is a Naruto (Mass references from other anime) story... And I've got another brain twitch I'm in pre-planning stages on. Plus I've got a couple original stories in the works…

Sorry I digress thanks to my great Beta KD the Ravenclaw, and thanks to everyone who's been waiting for this chapter for the last year+ Hopefully the next chapter will a) not take nearly as long and b)be better written. My style has come a long way since I wrote this and I think that's part of why I'm not completely happy with it.

Sorry getting off track again, without further ado I present

Unspeakable Truths, Volume 2

Chapter 5: Deadwing

OTTERY ST. CATCHPOLE 1400 Hours

Silent and unseen, he made his way towards his unsuspecting target. Breathing slowly as to not make a sound, he stilled his rapidly beating heart. Even after years of service the legendary Ghost, AKA Mr. Grey AKA Arthur Weasley still felt the rush of adrenaline during tense operations.

Creeping past the sole witch guarding his target, he reached out, and nearly jumped as a hand snapped out and held his arm in an iron Grip.

"And Just what do you think you're doing?" He hid a shudder at the frigid tone in the voice. This did not bode well for him at all.

"Well umm... I..." His years of Training failed him at the moment.

"Arthur Weasley, you will NOT touch these biscuits, they are for the guests tonight."

"But Molly-wobbles..."

"Don't Molly-wobbles me Arthur. You aren't getting any until the guests do."

"Yes dear," he sighed, and dejectedly turned and left the kitchen.

Molly Weasley smiled. She loved her husband dearly, but there was no way she was going to let him ruin his appetite or get away with stealing biscuits from her... "ARTHUR WEASLEY!" she yelled in frustration, knowing it would already be too late.

Arthur smiled, as he munched on the chocolate biscuit in his shed. "Sorry Molly dear, but your biscuits taste too wonderful to not indulge in one before tea."

...

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry November 26, 1800 hours

He was starting to feel desperate and hunted. Everywhere he turned there was one of many hunters after him. All of them looked the same, all had stars in their eyes, eyes that only saw a title, a face, a farce. He cursed his luck as he was coming down late from one of his rare training sessions without Ginny, finding himself ambushed by a raven haired beauty, one he knew from past experience would be no different from the others.

"Oh Harry! Just the talented and handsome young wizard I was looking for. Would you escort me to the Yule Ball?"

"I'm sorry Cho, I've already got a date for the Yule Ball." He apologized and gently removed her fingers that she had been lightly caressing against his arm.

"Oh come now, Harry, surely a person of your stature would want to attend such a prestigious event with someone who has some class," she replied, sliding up to him.

"The person I am going with has plenty of class, thank you very much," he snapped back with increasing frustration. The more he tried to get away the more she attempted to cling to him.

"But Harry," to his extreme displeasure she seemed to almost purr his name. "She's a Weasley, it's doubtful that she can even afford proper dress-robes, besides she's such a tom-boy. For you to show up to such an event with a girl like that would be an embarrassment for one such as yourself."

Harry felt his anger flare, and with it his magic. Trying hard to keep himself under control, he pushed her away. "Thanks but no thanks Cho, you deserve someone who's far more concerned with appearances than I am. Have a good day." He twisted on his heel and stalked away before she could respond, or latch onto his arm again.

Hermione was sitting in the common room when she saw Harry storm through the fat-lady's portrait. "Harry, what's wrong?"

He took a deep breath before starting. "Cho Chang, I told you she was trying to seduce me. She wants to go with me to the Yule Ball, and she wasn't taking no for an answer. I was so close to hexing her it wasn't funny. What's wrong with me, Hermione? I can face the taunts of death eaters without a problem, I deal with Malfoy and Snape on a daily basis, I've even managed to control my temper around Dumbledore, but a normal girl tries to get her digs in and I'm a split second from cursing her into oblivion."

Hermione's smile would have done the Cheshire cat proud. "Those digs Harry, were they aimed directly at you or at someone else close to you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Hermione," was his indignant reply; despite his biting tone, the bright red blush that was slowly creeping up his neck told her the real story.

Seeing the blush only made Hermione's grin wider. "I thought as much. Does she know, Harry?"

"Of course not Hermione! If Cho knew how close I was to hexing her it would be all over school that I'm once again the lying psycho violent boy."

"Harry James Potter, that's not what I meant!" She yelled, stomping her foot.

"You know, Hermione, you're awfully cute when you've got the angry flush, don't you agree Neville?" He smirked as they both blushed bright red.

While Hermione was stuttering in her attempt to yell at him, he waved his hand at her and quickly left the common room. As he stepped out of the Portrait, he walked right into the object of his earlier teasing.

"Hey Ginny, are you free?"

She smiled at him, which made him recall his earlier blush. "Sure, what for? Training? Pranking?" She smirked at him for a moment before adding, "Snogging?"

She grinned as his complexion matched her hair. "That's a lovely look for you, Potter."

He glared despite the blush. "Have you been talking to Hermione again?"

She gave him a coy smile. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Stop that!" he snapped, his face doing a fairly impressive impression of a tomato.

She grinned, she had practiced that smile in front of a mirror for weeks to be able to pull it off in front of him, and was quite pleased with the shade of red he had turned. "Well I suppose I can; after all, I was your third choice and all…"

"Come off it, Ginny, I'm trying to be serious! Besides, you were my first choice, I was just trying to say that in a way that wouldn't get me hexed by the other two," he protested, holding his hands up in the universal sign for surrender.

"Fine, call it revenge."

"Revenge for what?"

"For what!" she snapped in outrage. "Thanks to your little antics in front of all my classmates, the girls are all bothering me trying to learn, and I quote, what did that scrawny-no-galleon-Weasley do to snag Harry Potter? And the boys are all hitting on me!"

"I'm sorry Ginny, it wasn't my intention to cause problems for you."

"Don't worry about it," She waved off his apology. "While I admit it's nice getting attention, life was easier when I could simply hide in the back of class."

"I know the feeling. Anyway, speaking of the Yule Ball..."

Ginny frowned slightly, wondering why the sudden change in subject and where Harry was going with this.

He took a deep breath to calm himself before starting. "Cho Chang wants to be my date for the Yule Ball."

At this announcement, Ginny's face fell. "Oh, well I suppose Collin would be willing to be my date for the night."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You mean this isn't one of those I've-got-a-better-date-so-I'm-not-taking-you-anymore conversations?"

"No, it's a do-you-want-to-help-me-prank-that-arrogant-chit-of-a-witch-who-made-the-mistake-of-insulting-my-escort-to-the-Yule-ball conversation."

"You sure know how to show a girl a good time Harry," she said with a grin before they vanished to plot and execute their prank. While Harry had in past years abstained from pranks, they were using them as infiltration training. Luckily, with the twins back at Hogwarts, no one suspected anyone else of the pranks occurring around the school, the twin terrors made for a perfect alibi.

After passing a pleasant evening planning their revenge, the pair slipped into their beds, their heads filled with pleasant thoughts about what the next day would bring.

...

LIVERPOOL ENGLAND: 0200 HOURS: MALFOY VACATION HOME.

Smythe and McLain made their way through the wreckage that was once the grand entrance to a vacation home owned by the Malfoy Family.

"Sir, we've secured the facilities and await your inspection!"

Smythe nodded as McLain dismissed the young Lieutenant.

"What do you think?"

"Security was lax enough for me to believe they didn't expect us to hit here, but heavy enough that they're hiding something important."

"I agree, get Salibard and his team of sniffers down here and see what they can turn up."

"Yes Sir!" McLain snapped off a quick salute and then took off to make contact with the battlemage and his team.

...

FLAMEL ESTATE: SOMEWHERE NEAR VERSAILLES FRANCE 0700

"Salibard? I wasn't expecting you for the weekly briefing for another hour. What's going on?" Perenelle Flamel was sitting at her table while Nicholas was busy preparing breakfast. They alternated cooking breakfast, as they had always given the house elves the weekends off, and while she was loathe to admit it, her husbands alchemy skill apparently transitioned well to the kitchen much better than her charms or transfiguration.

"We managed to locate and destroy the magical detectors that Voldemort's forces had been using."

"Oh? Do tell."

"We've been conducting unofficial raids in different un-occupied homes of death eaters. While Malfoy manor is well protected by unplottable wards, one of their summer homes is not. Based on evidence submitted by the UK DOM we concluded that the same wards that protect the manor always prevent the detector to work. Once we realized that we begin systematically raiding the locations we knew about."

"Excellent work, then. Well, as it looks like Nicholas has breakfast ready why don't you join us and then we'll complete this briefing properly."

The young battle wizard nodded and proceeded to follow his boss to the table.

...

Harry and Ginny were almost in tears holding back their laughter.

Cho's morning started with her breakfast leaping off her plate and then attacking her until she was able to grab a fork and spear it.

Then when she tried to get more food to replace her ruined breakfast, the food she set aside joined the new food in attacking her again.

Finally it stopped, but once it did all of the food on her plate, and any food she added to her plate simply vanished.

...

"What do you mean that the Summer home is no longer there!?" Demanded an irate Lucius Malfoy to the younger death eater who had just arrived to give him the news.

"I'm sorry, Lucius, we arrived to take our turn guarding and found the whole place had been leveled to the ground. There wasn't anything larger than a splinter left."

"Did you check for spell work? Was it the Order or the ministry? Even without Fudge I am not without some influence there, I will have heads on platters; as for you… crucio!" the young death eater cried out in pain but Lucius paid him no mind. He already knew he would face worse when he gave the news to his master.

"My lord," he said minutes later as he approached the adopted throne room of his master.

"Lucius, what news do you bring me?"

"My lord, the Malfoy summer home was leveled along with the contents. I dispatched some former Aurors and they believe it was some kind of Muggle accident. There was no spell damage to the property."

"The object is lost then, Lucius?"

Malfoy paled as he heard the tone in his masters voice. "Yes, my lord. There was nothing left of the place."

"Before I address thiss ssshortcoming Luciussss, have you anything elssse to report?" the way he hissed sent shivers through all the death eaters in attendance.

"Yes… yes my lord! News from Hogwarts, several members of Moody's Junior Auror corp took part in the defense of the blood traitor's shop. We have several of our junior members in place to handle the situation."

"No, I want to make a more public example out of them. Have several members ready to go, when the brats take their usual weekend in that wretched town, send a team to deal with them."

Lucius smiled. "Yes my lord, it will be a pleasure."

"One Last thing Lucius."

"Yes master?"

Voldemort smiled cruelly before waving his wand. "A reminder that failure is not acceptable, Lucius, even from you. Crucio." He took delight in the screams of pain echoing in his chambers.

…

"Thank you Salibard, is there anything else to report regarding the operation?"

"No mam, I've left the reports from DOM US, DOM Pacific, and DOM Australia."

"Excellent work, and what of project black?" asked Nicholas, always one to enjoy cloak and dagger.

"Despite some initial security issues which, to a point still exist the majority of the project is moving forward. Specialist Paladin has made some unique requests, as has operative Firebrand, we have managed to fulfill some of them, how ever we are still seeking personal for others. A couple of their requests, however, require your approval. Along those lines we have retrieved R&D specialists The Professor and HG."

Perenelle blinked, this was an unexpected development. "Did either Paladin or Firebrand provide reasoning's for the personal return?"

"Operative Firebrand cites safety for the two developers, but notes that with the addition of Hyde and Jeckyl as well as two people they have recruited in place, they don't need their services bad enough to warrant the security they would have to maintain to protect them."

"May I see the list of what they're requesting?"

"Yes, mam," was the crisp reply as the sheet of parchment was handed over.

"Well, it appears that neither your godson nor his partner do anything by halves."

"Indeed, Salibard, I'll be in the office later today, consider any of their requests approved with the highest level of priority."

Salibard blinked, he had not been expecting that, but quickly composed himself and nodded.

"Expecting trouble, dear?" asked her husband of several centuries.

"I always expect trouble, dear, and from the looks of it so do those two."

...

"While I doubt they'll try anything overt, be ready for them. I always expect trouble when we're up against snakes. Now lets go pound them!"

"Go Gryffindor!" responded the team to Harry's pre-game pep talk.

Welcome, everyone, to the first Quidditch match of the season! Today's match is Gryffindor against Slytherin. I'm Luna Lovegood, your announcer, reminding you to watch out for snarbler singlefinks during the match. And now entering the field are your Gryffindor Lions: Weasley, Bell, Robins, Weasley, Weasley, Weasley, and Potter! This years team looks to be Gryffindor's strongest since Oliver Wood, now playing for Puddlemere United. And now the Slytherin Team, Nott, Harper, Baddock, Pritchard, Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy. It looks to be an interesting game as they prepare to get underway."

"Captains, shake hands."

Both Harry and Katie agreed to let Harry shake Malfoy's hand since they already hated each other. Malfoy and Harry shook hands; Malfoy shooting Harry a venomous glare that Harry repaid with a confident smirk. As expected, this only enraged the Slytherin Boy.

"Like we agreed, mates!" yelled Harry, as he shot into the air.

The day would go down in the minds of those who watched as the most one-sided slaughter in Hogwarts recent years. The Slytherins played dirty as they normally would, but they were simply unprepared for the mastery of the air that was the Gryffindor team. With the Weasley twins back to finish their final year, the bludgers never once approached their chasers. With Ginny and Katie as experienced, all newcomer Demelza had to do was catch and pass the quaffle. Even Harry got into the action, diving in when the Slytherins were about to pass the quaffle. Baddock was so surprised that he dropped it. Ginny quickly snatched it up and shot for another goal. Ron's time with Moody had done wonders for his reaction time as well. The Slytherins only had nine opportunities to score, and only a single quaffle made it past him.

By the time the Snitch made an appearance, the Gryffindors were up by 190, and as Harry dove and easily beat Malfoy to the snitch, Ginny threw one last goal, making the game 360 to 10.

The party in the common room that night was loud and long. The team, however, wasn't slacking off. With their current score the other teams would be hard pressed to catch up, but anything could happen by the end of the year. As they had agreed, Katie and Harry and the rest of the team spent an hour at the party and then turned in for the night. The following day was the Hogsmeade visit and they wanted to be well rested for the trip.

…

By unspoken agreement, Harry and Ginny were together with the twins while Hermione and Luna had ended up with Neville and Ron for a day of shopping and relaxation. At least that was the original plan. As pops sounded, most of the student populace panicked.

"Death Eaters!" screamed a Hufflepuff fourth year before she collapsed in hysterics.

"Corps to me!" yelled Ron as Neville whipped out his wand and began throwing stunners at the advancing figures in black. "Luna, take Hermione and get into the Three Broomsticks. Go now, we'll cover you two." The eccentric Ravenclaw nodded and grabbed the older Gryffindor girl by the hand. Once they were there, they flipped over tables near the windows and used them for cover as they began hexing back.

"Ron! Neville, Hurry up!" yelled Hermione, as she sent a variety of rare curses at the black robed figures, forcing them to put up shields or scatter. The team of four quickly grew as more of the junior Auror corps joined the battle. The twins joined them, casting a variety of creative hexes that left two death eaters as giant green rabbits.

…

"Crucio"! snarled Bellatrix Lestrange, one of the two senior Death Eaters sent on the mission.

Her target, Katie Bell, screamed as the curse hit her, prompting the death eater to laugh. Her laughter was cut short as she ended the spell early to dodge a cutting curse.

A scarred young man and a red headed lady were standing on top of the roof of Zonko's, throwing curses down. The man jumped down in front of the student she had been cursing while the lady landed next to her and began administering potions.

"Who are you to interfere with the Dark Lord's plans."

"The name is Black, Mr. Black."

"I am a former Black. You are not one of us," she said before throwing three cutting hexes at him.

He flicked his wand and all three spells were redirected to the ground. That caught her attention. She had never seen anyone with that kind of command over their magic. "I'll give you a chance to join our lord or die."

The man laughed, inciting her fury. How dare he laugh at her offer or her lord? "Crucio!"

He waved his wand and the ground in front of him spouted a rock, which shattered under the curse. "Coupant Fulgureris!" he replied with two sharp flicks of his wand, sending two white blasts towards her.

"Protego!" To her surprise the first blast shattered her shield and the second hit her dead on.

Suddenly the inner circle's top torturer was screaming in pain. Every nerve ending in her body was spasming and she felt like her body was on fire. Desperately she tapped her portkey and vanished.

"Blast, I didn't realize they had those," said the man to the woman, who looked up and shrugged.

"Sloppy, Mr. Black. Nice spell work though."

"Talk later, how's the girl?"

"No long lasting damage. She'll need attention soon."

"I think the defenders are rallying to the Three Broomsticks. We'll take her there." Saying that, he scooped Katie Bell easily into his arms.

A moment later, the pair arrived where the battle was the fiercest. Glancing around to ensure Dumbledore wasn't around, he ran up to several Professors who were battling their way down and deposited Katie Bell into the surprised arms of Hagrid. He then vanished without a sound and reappeared on the roof of the Three Broomsticks where his partner was waiting.

"Well Firebrand, how bad does it look?"

"Not too horrible. The Junior Aurors plus Luna, Hermione, and the Twins are holding, but the Death Eaters are starting to break through their defenses. Neville's got a couple spell burns as does Ron but for the most part everyone is okay."

"Recommendations?"

"Let me stay here and do some long range work while you go down and show them 'Mr. Black in action' long enough for me to get some protective wards around the building."

"Sounds good to me. Stay Safe."

"You, too."

Below, Neville was alternately throwing stunners and shields as were most of his partners. They had managed to subdue about five more death eaters, but more kept coming. Suddenly a man dressed all in black appeared and for a moment both sides paused in surprise.

Harry took the moment they stopped to layer a triple barrier run shield in front of him waited for the signal.

"Who the hell are you?" asked a death eater who was preparing to hex the man.

"Me? I'm just a guy on vacation," he replied.

The death eater paused to take in the information, and then the ground behind him exploded and he fell to the ground limp and unmoving.

…

Ginny gave Harry a worried smile as he apparated off the roof silently. She grabbed a couple spare stones to use as anchoring stones for the runes, and then aimed her wand up and began casting "Exeqourus Explodora!" Her spell went straight up into the sky and then flew around as directed by her wand. She looked around, trying to pick a target, and listened to the exchange between him and one of the Death Eaters. She directed her spell to come around and hit him from behind.

After sending him flying, she began quickly layering shielding and strengthening wards on the building while her partner kept the opposition busy.

"Reducto! Reducto! Reducto! Reducto! Reducto!" Mr. Black's spell barrage took out two more Death Eaters and forced the rest to take cover. Emboldened by his actions, the Junior Aurors rallied and began throwing stunners at anything in black. Suddenly the hairs at the back of his neck rose and he silently apparated, forcing his way and shattering through 2 anti-apparition wards in the process.

Ginny saw him leave and followed suit, using a portkey to take her to the safe-house where they would regroup and reemerge.

Once they were both in the safe-house, they removed their glamour and checked each other to make sure they looked okay. They then slid out the front door and into an alley.

It took them five minutes before they could get to the three broomsticks. "Harry! Ginny! Over here!" yelled Ron as he saw the two approach.

Neville glanced at the distance the pair would have to move and ordered the group there. "Covering fire!" The group let loose with a barrage of spells and Harry and Ginny used the opportunity to run across the street into the door. Harry had a couple spell burns and Ginny seemed to be favoring one leg more than the other, but they were safe and that was enough for everyone there.

Distant pops could be heard, and suddenly Aurors and Order members entered the combat zone, prompting a cheer from the weary defenders.

…

Albus Dumbledore frowned. While it was the arrival of the order along with Ministry Aurors that had won the day, according to the report, a mysterious man dressed all in black had turned the tide of the battle.

There was a knock on his office door. "Come in, Kingsley."

"Hullo Albus, We've finished debriefing the students involved in the defense of Hogsmeade. We swept the town, and the only strange thing we found were these." He held up three bottles of ink. "One was found where Katie Bell said she was rescued from Lestrange, another in front of the Three Broomsticks, and the last was found where Potter and Weasley said they were ambushed. I have pensieve accounts from the Junior Auror Corps and Bell. Potter said there wasn't much to see in his, just a shadow and then the people attacking them dropped."

"May I view them?"

"Of course, I was going to ask you to join me as I reviewed them, since two pairs of eyes are better than one."

"Of course." Dumbledore reached out and tapped the pensive with his wand.

An hour later he and Kingsley emerged and he conjured some tea for them. "Interesting and informative, Kingsley, and it makes me think that the ambush on death eaters near the Shrieking Shack had something to do with this mysterious man in black. Is there anything else to report?"

"No, just getting ready to turn everything in to Amelia and Rufus."

"Very well then, good day."

Kingsley nodded and then left his office, leaving him to wonder what happened. He had almost lost Potter in the attack, he'd have to start getting the boy better defense lessons, but Severus was in the position and the two did not seem to get along. Oh well the boy would just have to learn how to deal with his betters. He wrote a note for Severus to give Harry supplementary lessons for his next detention and stood up to make his way to the Great Hall. The students would have to be consoled, as several of their numbers were still recovering in St. Mungo's or the Hospital Wing.

…

Harry pulled out a small knife and pricked his finger, letting a single drop of blood fall to the parchment. After tapping it with his wand, the parchment glowed briefly before unrolling. As his mail was being screened without his knowledge, all his important correspondence was transferred through Luna. Thinking about the odd Ravenclaw brought a small smile to his face, he never would have thought the seemingly strange witch was actually Ginny's spymaster at Hogwarts, and when it came to covert information passing, she was amazing and mail was no different. The note was from Gringotts regarding several of his purchases. Grabbing a quill he wrote his reply and then resealed the parchment with another drop of blood. When a bright flash of heat signified the arrival of an even more secure form of post, he quickly plucked the new letter from Rosette and eagerly started on the newest arrival.

After five minutes, he blinked and carefully reread the letter that he had received via phoenix post. It looks like his godmother agreed with his assessment and Rosette had been kind enough to be willing to be the messenger. Overall while confirming a couple of his suspicions the tone of the letter was good, and the news at the bottom was phenomenal.

He was thinking about how to it could be used for a strong tactical advantage when he realized a problem from their last impromptu operation. He looked over to where his partner was sitting and working on a potions assignment.

"Ginny, have you got a minute?"

"What's wrong?"

Instead of replying verbally he handed her the letter. She smiled at Harry's grand-mère's warm tone that managed to come across the parchment until she reached the end of the letter, prompting her eyes to grow wide in surprise. Her response was a feral grin, and she nodded to him.

"Let's get everyone together. Black Inc. is ready to start stopping attacks as they happen. Not arrive fifteen minutes after the Death Eaters have left." He nodded, agreeing with her on all accounts.

A few minutes later, Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Luna, and the Twins were assembled in the Room of Requirement. Once all six were comfortable and each had added their own privacy wards over what the room provided, Harry began.

"Okay here's the breakdown. We now have a way to find out about certain Death Eater attacks as they happen. Let me clarify that. We don't have a way of getting information ahead of time only as it's happening. When we can, we will intervene and do what we are able."

He paused and glanced at the ground. "I'm sorry to say that because of security concerns we will not always be able to intervene. We are further restricted because of our decision to remain anonymous, especially with our spell choices."

"Harry, what do you mean by that?"

"Hermione, when we start going in we aren't using stupefy. In a combat situation I start with Reducto and go up from there."

"Harry Potter! You're talking about Killing people!"

"They have no restraint and no fear of using deadly spells, Hermione. While I would like to take the moral high road, we can't allow ourselves that luxury. This. Is. War. Given time you'll understand Hermione. Look at it like this, you stun a death eater, their partner comes by an eneverates them, and then you're back to two to one. You hit them with a curse that causes so much damage they need days with a healer and it's one less enemy you have to worry about. Besides that's not the real security concern."

Hermione deflated as she heard his reasoning. "Very well Harry, I see your point. So what is the main security concern then?"

"Well on the attack at Hogsmeade, Ginny and I worked under our disguises, but the spells we used can be seen through by people like Dumbledore. Therefore when he breached my warning wards we had to evacuate before he saw us. Thankfully review in a pensive won't reveal anything other than what are disguises look like..." His voice trailed off as he noticed that Hermione was practically vibrating in her seat.

"Yes, Miss Granger do you have something to share with the class?"

She grinned. "You two will bow in awe before my genius and the Twins ability."

Harry and Ginny exchanged a look and then as one turned back to her. "Alright Hermione..."

"Just what is it..."

"That will force us..."

"To stand before you..."

"In awe?"

"Would you two stop showing off!" snapped Hermione, annoyed.

"Sorry, Hermione," they chorused in unison. Prompting her to glare at them again.

"As I was saying prepare to be amazed." She nodded to the twins who produced a small tray.

"Okay, and just what do we have here?" asked Ginny while Harry gently tapped the wrapped objects with his wand.

"The newest flavors of Poly-pops. Mr. Blackberry and Red Hot Red Head."

Harry blinked and grabbed one that had a skull and crossbones. "Someone's idea of a joke?"

"Of course not, the man who leaves bottles of Black ink is soon to be earning the reputation of the most dangerous man in the magical world. What better else to mark his polypops." Replied Fred Indignantly.

Harry unwrapped the candy and glanced at Ginny. "Can't be as bad as McLain's brew."

Ginny shuddered at the memory of their strictest trainer's favorite beverage; they had made the mistake of trying it once, after that drinking it was a form of punishment. "Right," she said, and popped the cinnamon flavored candy into her mouth and waited.

A moment later the two began to change. Ginny grew four inches and her curves grew more pronounced. Harry grew two inches, his hair gained white strands, his eye color dulled and he developed several interesting scars around his body.

"Hermione this is brilliant!" remarked Harry but stopped when he realized the voice was still his own.

"Sorry Harry, you'll still have to do that trick you do for your voice. I couldn't replicate the voice right." She turned to look at her best friend "Wow Ginny, just wow."

"Ginevra Molly Weasley you spit that out right now!" snapped Fred and George in Stereo. "It's one thing to know that your baby sister alters her appearance to look like a harlot, but it's another thing to see it," explained Fred to a bemused looking Hermione and Luna.

"Weasley? nope never heard of them, the name's Julia Scarlett. Miss Scarlett to you."

The two spit out the candy and transformed back to themselves. As the Candies hit the ground they puffed out of existence. "Added security feature," explained Hermione as Ginny bounded over to hug the older girl.

"It's amazing Hermione, how'd the three of you do it?"

"Well..."

"While I wish we could take the credit..."

"Because the work behind it is truly brilliant..."

"But all we really did..."

"Was explain a couple processes to Hermione..."

"And she did the rest."

As the twins finished, Harry, Ginny and Luna all looked at Hermione in expectation.

"What?" She asked with a smug grin.

"Out..."

"With..."

"It..."

"Hermione." Chorused three voices at once.

Hermione Granger stared at the three of them in shock. Even the twins had their jaws open in surprise. "Oh good job, it looks like we broke the twins AND Hermione."

Shaking off her stupor, Hermione sighed and went into her explanation. "I could give you the long and drawn out process, but I imagine the shortened version will suffice for you three. I used the Twins procedure for the Canary Creams with several appearance modifications to achieve the desired effects."

"And the elimination after use?"

She gave them a wicked grin that was downright scary. "Remember Harry how you warned me to avoid taking lemon drops from the Headmaster?"

After he nodded, she continued. "Well I took a couple and tried to analyze them, but every time I tried to dissolve them into a potion or probe them with Magic they disintegrated. I then researched possible spells that would do that, and after finding a few, I thought it'd be a good added protection for the polypops so that they can't be taken and studied."

"That's my sister," said Harry proudly, nudging Ginny slightly, "not the smartest girl in Hogwarts for nothing."

Hermione blushed as Ginny nudged him back. "Okay Potter, what's the big secret you two are hiding?" She finally asked, as the pair looked like the cat that got the canary.

"I just received a letter from grand-mère. She's been a bit busy herself, and it looks like one of the operations teams Destroyed the magical detectors that Voldemorts forces was using. With that eliminated, they're going to have a much harder time going after targets. And along those same lines we've gotten the wand signature of 5 of his inner circle that we can track down."

"Wow Potter..."

"Very Impressive..."

"But how did you find this out?"

"Owl Post."

"Harry, I have a question."

"Yes Hermione?"

"What kept the Headmaster from reading the letters he intercepted?"

"Two things, one it can set off alarms at the ministry magical post department, there are ways to get around that though. More importantly is that all regular post that comes to me has been blood sealed since we came back to Hogwarts."

"Harry, Blood magic is a class 3 dark Art!"

"Only according to Fudge's Ministry. One hundred years ago any official for of post was blood sealed to prevent anyone intercepting it. The fact that blood magic is a dark art is nothing more than a worthless lie to the public eye. All my mail has been blood sealed since I started coming to Hogwarts."

Harry looked at Ginny's spymaster in shock before her elbow reminded him that he needed to continue. "Ministry prejudice not-withstanding, blood seals are still breakable if he had a sample of my blood. These are also signature sealed, meaning that it would require my own magical signature to activate the blood seal which would release the letter."

Hermione let out a low whistle. "That's impressive, I've never heard, or read anything like that."

Ginny smiled. "I know, that's because it hasn't existed before now, the Flamels created it for our personal use, they needed something that even Dumbledore couldn't break through. For all his manipulations and questionable motives, the man is a powerful wizard and brilliant researcher as well."

"So where does that leave us?" asked Hermione. To her surprise it was Luna who answered.

"We're working on some other forms of communication, while the seals prevent unwanted eyes from reading the letters, if we don't receive them than they are useless."

"The Unspeakables use a form of two way parchment, similar to the DA coins, it uses a variation of the protean charm, but we want something better."

Hermione thought about it for a moment and then got a gleam in her eye. "Harry what do you know about muggle forms of communication."

"Like phones? but they don't work at Hogwarts and how would you get the lines run for..."

"No Harry, my mum and dad have something new that they got from the states, it's called a cellular phone and it works without the wires in a traditional phone."

"What's the range on that Hermione? we have magical radio transmitters but they only work a couple miles."

"Harry, with a cell phone I can call my aunt in the states. She's actually the one who got mum and dad into it, she's a doctor and apparently this is just catching on with their medical personnel."

"I like it, for now let's go with this, Hermione, Fred and George work on creating a magical version of the cellphone, Luna, find a way to make it secure. Any questions?"

"No? then, you're dismissed."

A minute later the room was empty with the exception of Harry and Ginny.

"Harry?"

"Yeah Gin?"

"When do we finalize the plans for Black Inc.?"

"I asked grand-mère to find someone to run it while we're in school. Afterwards we'll see how it goes."

"Why not create the company publicly? Why have the intermediaries? We have alternate identities already. You just hate the public spotlight, no matter persona you're wearing." She concluded.

"Yes I'd have to say I like my privacy," he answered with a smile.

She nodded and the two of them spent the rest of their training in companionable silence.

...

"I bring this meeting to Order," announced Albus Dumbledore, widely respected as one of the leaders of the light side.

"Albus, why did you call this meeting?" Asked Kingsley Shacklebolt as he entered the meeting followed closely by Tonks, who tripped upon entering and fell flat on her face.

"Clumsy Hag," muttered Snape who she had knocked down as well, as he got up off the floor without bothering to offer her a hand up.

"Sorry Sevvie, Wotcher Albus, what gives?"

"Please have a seat, Kingsley, Nymphadora." He replied, waiting until they did so. Tonks' hair changed color in irritation as he used her hated first name.

"Now the reason we are assembling, Severus was able to obtain information without compromising his position that there will be a death-eater attack tonight in conjunction with the speeches from the two candidates for Minister. Severus, if you please."

"As you know, the Dark Lord had significant influence over the previous Minster of Magic. He wishes to have that same influence over a new minister, at least until the time he feels ready for a complete takeover. His candidate, an old pureblood named Bishop, will mention in his speech how inefficient the Aurors have been in the war effort. When Scrimgeour attempts to refute the statement an attack will be launched at Diagon Alley. The purpose is to simply create panic and mayhem and discredit the Head of the Aurors."

Dumbledore stood back up. "We will be waiting for the death eaters. There will be some members in the Leaky Cauldron and more shopping around. We must act quickly because time is of the essence."

The Order members received their designated areas and disappeared leaving the home once more empty.

Or almost empty.

Almost an hour before the meeting had begun, Harry and Ginny (using polypops and disillusionment spells, as well as sharing Harry's invisibility cloak) silently apparated into number 12-Grimmauld Place.

Ginny pulled out a muggle style notebook and a pen, and then cast a wandless silencing spell on them.

Use a disillusioned Extendable Ear, she wrote on the paper.

Harry nodded and did that. He then pulled out a special transcription quill and tapped it with his wand. Used almost exclusively by medi-witches and wizards in Hospitals for detailed healing operations, it identified who spoke and wrote down what was said. He hit that with a silencing spell as well.

As the meeting progressed, the two watched what was being said and came to an unspoken agreement. As everyone apparated out Ginny pulled out a tiny cube.

"Connect call team three," she whispered into it and then waited for the girls face to appear above it. Hermione and the twins had succeeded beyond their wildest imagination on their invention.

"Good evening, what is the situation?"

"Prep the team and be ready, the birds are watching Diagon alley, but I think Hogsmeade might be a potential target. Pops for everyone and watch your backs."

"You too, Keep my brother safe."

"Relax, we're only on observation for this operation. You four are the ones who need to be worried. "

Harry cut in, pushing his face into view. "Remember the plan: if there's trouble alert the corps and use delaying tactics. Above all keep yourselves safe."

Hermione resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Ever since they had started their training Harry's protective older (despite the fact that he was younger) brother syndrome had been in high gear with her and Luna. "Sure thing, out."

"They'll be fine. Even if they are attacked, they are prepared to deal with it."

"Yes, shall we go?"

"Lets."

Once more, the two apparated silently, and a moment later appeared not at an officially designated apparition point, but on the roof of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.

...

Hermione and Fred had made their way to the roof of the three broomsticks. "How do you guys do that?" she asked him as he helped her climb up from where the stairs ended. When they had walked in he had simply smiled at Madam Rosmerta, who waved him past.

"Years of practice, we have a little agreement with Rosie, we leave the galleons she doesn't mention that we were outside of Hogwarts on a non-Hogsmeade weekend. How else do you think we got butterbeer for the Quidditch parties?"

She nodded thoughtfully as she pulled her hair back into a no-nonsense bun. "Do you have all the equipment?"

"What equipment?" he replied jokingly, and then shivered. Between the hair in a bun and the glare she was giving him, Hermione was doing a spot-on impression of their head-of-house.

"Oh, you mean this equipment," He said, quickly pulling out a bottomless bag.

"That's what I thought," she replied smugly, pulling the bag from his grip and began removing the contents.

...

"Which set should we use?"

"Well Miss Scarlet, I think we should use the ones we look like."

"Sounds like a plan, Mr. Black. Shall we locate our objectives?"

"Your specialty as I recall, Miss Scarlett," he replied with a gentle shove.

"True Mr. Black, so try not to mess up too much," she replied, bumping him back.

It didn't take the pair very long to locate the majority of the Order.

"Could they be any more obvious?" asked Ginny, with more than a trace of annoyance in her voice.

"Well it's a good thing that most of the death eaters aren't any smarter." Whispered Harry back to her.

The two watched as ten death eaters apparated in, drawing the attention of the order of the Phoenix, who began dueling them. Before either side had made much progress another thirty death eaters arrived, vastly outnumbering Dumbledore's limited forces.

Had the full order been involved the battle may have gone differently, but with odds of nearly three-to-one they didn't have a chance. Above them Harry and Ginny, or rather Mr. Black and Miss Scarlett, had abandoned their earlier plan to merely observe and were using subtle magic and spells to protect the Order members from the violent green killing curse.

Harry was using a great deal of wordless conjuration to block the curse, while Ginny would summon or banish objects to place them between the spells and the people.

Between their efforts, the Order didn't lose anyone to the curse, though their number was reduced to about half from injuries.

Before they were over run, loud pops signified the arrival of Ministry Aurors who swept in under a hail of stunners.

The Aurors were on the prowl and looking for trouble, so Ginny nodded to Harry and the two port-keyed back to the Hogsmeade Safe House.

...

"There, I've got ten magical signatures apparating in."

"Do any of them match the database?"

"One of them matches a known Auror's Signature."

"What do you think?"

"If I had to guess, someone at the ministry is taking preemptive measures to make sure Scrimgeour's speech isn't rudely interrupted."

"Right, let's get out of here before we're caught."

The two started to make their way down to the ground floor when Fred froze suddenly, causing Hermione to walk into his back. He was staring at a dirty glass sitting on the floor.

"What's wrong?"

"Company downstairs."

"How do you know?"

"Rosmerta left me a warning, come on let's get to the other safe house?"

The two carefully made their way back to the roof, and eventually to the roof of the Hogsmeade safe-house where they finally relaxed.

"Fred?"

"Yes Hermione?"

"Why didn't we just come here in the first place, it's under the fidileus so we wouldn't have had to worry about anyone seeing us."

Fred paused, trying to answer that. Luckily for him, the answer was supplied before he could be hexed.

"Because the ambient magic protecting the building would interfere with Aura viewing glass, as well as most of the other means of observation unless you've been trained in mage sight."

"Ginny!"

"Hullo Hermione. I take it that the Aurors showed up?"

She looked so shocked that the younger girl laughed. "They showed up at Diagon Alley too, when we saw you up here we figured they must be going to all the major areas in preparation."

"Voldemort's getting a bit predictable if the Ministry can out guess him."

"Either that or they have someone inside the Order who alerted them."

"Unless Fudge has actually gotten someone in the death eaters."

"No chance, Bones maybe, Scrimgeour possibly, Fudge, no way."

Pondering that happy thought, the group made their way back to Hogwarts.


End file.
